NirSighted
by capercailiechild
Summary: You want hideandseek? You want babies? You want Hanukkah? You want blind Readers? You want wacky? Read this, it's got them all!
1. The Waiting Game

Nir-Sighted

Chapter One: The Waiting Game

"Lie still, mei-mei, we'll get this figured out in no time," Simon said, trying to sound confident as he moved quickly around the infirmary. From one drawer, he pulled out a bottle of green eye drops. From another, a Cann wheel.

On the bed, River lay quiet and motionless. Since Simon had found her crying and blind in her bunk fifteen minutes ago, she had said nothing and done everything he'd asked. She seemed unable to speak, completely confused by the blindness.

Simon approached her and put two eye drops in each eye. "Blink for me," he said, and she did. "Any better?"

"Still dark," River whispered.

Simon put down the eye drops and picked up the Cann wheel. A simple device, it was used to test eye function. If River was truly blind, her eyes would not move when he spun the Cann wheel. He was holding his breath as he set it in front of her and put it into motion.

Her eyes didn't move.

"Simon, wasting time," River murmured. "Not going to catch the bad guy this way."

He stopped the Cann wheel with his hand. "Are you sure you can't see anything?"

"Can't see, like a blind mouse," River agreed, her eyes blankly swimming across the ceiling, although he knew now she saw none of it.

"Would you like to sleep?" he asked gently. "Maybe when you wake up, things will be better."

"Not much of a choice," she replied resignedly. "Already got it in your hand."

He looked at her in surprise; he was indeed holding the needle filled with the drug he used most often to put her to sleep. Then he remembered that he shouldn't have been surprised – his sister had shot men without looking at them. "Yes, I do," Simon managed to say. "You didn't answer my question."

"No matter what she says, you'll do it anyway."

"That's not true," Simon said. "You have to make the choice. But it's very early still, and it might be a good idea for you to sleep at least a little."

She shrugged, her blank eyes still appearing to scan the ceiling. "Not sleepy. Have a game to play."

There was a knock on the door, and before Simon could turn around, River said, "She's waiting for you. Worried."

Simon set down the needle and opened the door to let Kaylee in, starting: "I'm sorry, I just…"

"What happened?" Kaylee asked, immediately concerned at seeing River on the bed.

"Everything's dark," River informed the mechanic.

"She went blind," Simon added.

"Why?"

"I don't know," Simon admitted.

"_Go_," River said. "Have a game to play."

"You stay here, you hear me? Don't go wandering about," Simon cautioned his sister. "I don't want to lose you."

"Can't get anywhere outside without falling anyhow," River replied.

Simon hadn't thought of that. "Stay away from the airlock!" he exclaimed, worried.

She chuckled – _chuckled!_ – and said, "Not going to fall. Going to win. Going to be just fine, all right, splendid. You'll see."

Kaylee took Simon's hand. "Come _on_," she said. "She'll be fine. Hasn't she always been fine?"

"_Stay here_," Simon repeated to River, reluctantly letting Kaylee lead him from the infirmary.

He didn't see, but his sister gave the ceiling a grin. "_Come out, come out, wherever you are_…"

She slid to the floor, her bare feet noiseless, and stretched out her hands. It was her turn, after all, and if there was one thing she hated, it was losing.


	2. The Enemy Enters

NirSighted Chapter Two: The Enemy Enters

Inara awoke to the sound of water dripping overhead. Confused, she sat up and pulled a shawl around her shoulders. She slid into her slippers and opened the door to her shuttle. Seeing no one, she moved towards the galley, which made the most sense. Where else would the water have been coming from?

No one was in the galley, which mystified Inara further. The sound seemed to be coming from the hallway nearest the passenger bunks. She followed the noise and was rewarded with the sight of River kneeling on the floor near an air vent, holding a bottle in her left hand. "_Bao-bei_, what are you doing?" Inara asked gently.

"I'm winning," River muttered, or at least, that was what it sounded like she said. "Going to drown the enemy."

"Does Simon know where you are?" Inara asked, concerned. River seemed to be pouring something down the air vent. Inara didn't know for sure, but she didn't think that was the best of ideas.

"Sleeping with Kaylee," the younger girl replied, then turned her face towards Inara. "'Nara?"

"That's me, sweetie. What's wrong with your eyes?"

"Dark," River said matter-of-factly. "Doesn't matter, don't need them to win."

"Are you playing a game?"

River nodded, then turned back to dump more liquid down the air vent. "Haveta drown the enemy, otherwise she's going to win."

"Nobody's down there; it's just an air vent," Inara said, putting her hand on River's shoulder. "Come with me. Here, give me that."

River, without turning from the vent, handed Inara the bottle. Looking at it, Inara could see that it had once been full of clear syrup, the kind they poured on oatmeal to sweeten it. Now it only contained a third of the original contents. She shook her head, still confused. Syrup? What was _that_ about?

"She's going to win," River repeated, more petulantly.

"Let's go back to bed," Inara suggested, screwing the lid onto the syrup bottle. She reached for River's hand, then realized it was sticky with syrup. River seemed to realize this at the same time, and stuck her fingers in her mouth and murmured, "Sweet."

Footsteps echoed in the hallway, and Inara looked up. "Mal!"

"Surprised t' see me?" the captain asked. He rubbed his eyes sleepily. As usual, he wore his pants, but on top, he sported a creamy, soft-looking nightshirt-resembling garment. "What're ya doin', little one?" he asked River kindly.

"Winning," she replied offhandedly, her blank eyes looking elsewhere. "Haveta win, she's very good though."

Mal looked at Inara, who shrugged. The captain then said, "Where's the doc?"

"With Kaylee, I guess."

"Ah, God!" Mal said, clapping his hand to his head.

"Never mind," River said suddenly, standing up. "Good night."

Before Inara or Mal could say anything to her, she turned and ran away from both of them, leaving the captain staring confusedly after her. "What was that 'bout?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Inara replied, still holding the bottle of syrup.

"She… all right?" Mal asked. "I mean, she's not _all right_, but… what's wrong with her eyes?"

"She said…"

There was a pause, then a shriek, then a crash. "River?" Inara asked, hurrying into the hallway, Mal following her.

There was not one girl in the hallway… but two.

* * *

One was River, Mal could see that straight off, still covered in clear syrup, her hands out in front of her, a confused expression on her face. "I thought I heard you," River was saying as he and Inara approached.

The other girl looked… well, like a scared rabbit. She was scurrying backwards, away from River as fast as she could. "Can't… won't… just playing… can't make me go back there!" she yelled as River, hands out, tried to find her. It was like some odd game of hide-and-go-seek.

"What's going on here?" Inara asked.

Footsteps came pounding from the other side of the room, and Jayne, sporting a T-shirt, short pants, his hat, and a gun, burst in. "Thought we was…" he said blurrily. Then he seemed to take in the sight – two girls on the floor, Inara and Mal in the doorway, and said, "What's all this _fei hua?"_

Simon and Kaylee appeared a moment later. Mal had only a moment to notice that Simon was shirtless and Kaylee was only wearing a shirt and some flimsy undergarment, like some _jian huo_, before Simon burst out with: "River! What are you doing?"

His sister gave him the cutest I-have-no-idea-what-you're-talking-about smile, then said, "Found the enemy. Do I win?"

"What… who…?"

The girl, who was against the wall now, her knees drawn up, had her hands in front of her face as though that could prevent them from seeing her. It sounded as though she was sobbing.

River crawled over to the other girl and put her arm around the sobbing one. "Shh, shh, all right. You can win next time, 'kay?"

Inara came slowly towards them. "River, who is this?"

"Enemy…" River thought for a moment. "Maybe not enemy, maybe friend?" she asked Inara, looking up with her wide, blank eyes.

Simon had also come near them, and knelt down beside his sister and her sobbing friend/enemy. As he leaned in, he noticed a metal bracelet made of thin, delicate chain links around the new girl's wrist. Attached to the bracelet was a tag with engraved words on them. Simon gently undid the clasp on the bracelet and removed it from the girl's wrist. He could easily read it now: "Subject B-171217. Academy Experimental Zone 004. Please Return Immediately if Found." He put the bracelet on the table next to him. "River, where is she from?" he asked, knowing his sister would know.

Her arm still around the girl, whose sobs had quieted, River tilted her head, bit her lip, and thought. "Secret?" she asked.

"No, it can't be a secret. I want you to tell me."

She "looked" at everyone else in the room, even though that consisted of nothing more than her blank eyes swimming over Kaylee, Mal, Jayne, and Inara, before coming to rest, eerily, on his face. Then she leaned in with one hand and put it behind his neck, presumably figuring out where he was in relation to her. When she was assured of his position, she closed her eyes and whispered into his ear, "She is from a very long way away, but she is not my fault."

Simon nodded, her hand still on his neck, so she could feel it. He whispered, "Where?"

She thought a moment, as though reading something from the girl. Then she whispered, "Osiris. Saw her through the mirror."

"Who is she?"

"She is… enemy? No, friend," River corrected herself.

"Does she have a name?"

River nodded, then thought, her eyes elsewhere. "Catie. That is what she says she likes to be called, but there have been others who call her other things – Cathleen is her fullest name, but they always called her Catie. But the ones she was with last called her other things, not-nice things."

Before Simon could say anything else, she released the girl's shoulder and grabbed onto Simon's neck with both hands. He managed to choke out a gasp. "You have to listen to me," his sister said, lowly, urgently. "She knows… she knows the things I know. She has seen the things I have seen. She has _been with them_. You can't make her go back, you _can't_. I won't let you."

Simon looked from his oddly earnest, oddly lucid, blind sister to the girl crouched on the floor next to her. "Catie?" he asked softly. He felt River's hands release from his neck. "Catie, my name is Simon. You're safe here."

The girl was shaking. "Please don't… you can't… they can't know," she managed to mumble.

"You're safe here," Simon repeated.

She put a shaking hand to her face again, as though trying to hide. "Can't…"

"Are you hurt?" Simon asked, still gently.

She shook her head. "N…no, just… just… _I lost!"_ she wailed.

"You can win next time," River assured her.

"What in th' hell is she talkin' 'bout?" Jayne thundered from the doorway.

"Was playing game," River informed him, her blank eyes fixing on him. "Didn't let her win, should have."

"Come with me," Simon said, stretching out a hand to Catie. "I'll take you somewhere safe, all right?"

She nodded, her eyes still wide and very afraid. He realized she was dripping with syrup. "We'll get you cleaned up," Simon continued. "Come with me."

She stood up, River relinquishing her grasp, and unsteadily followed Simon.

"Let's get you cleaned up, _bao-bei_," Inara said to River, who pulled herself off the floor in acquiescence.

Simon led Catie to the infirmary and began gently washing the syrup off her. "What game were you playing with my sister?" he asked kindly.

"Hide-n-go-seek," Catie replied, her eyes faraway. "Was winning 'til she decided to drown me."

"River likes to win," Simon agreed, carefully wiping the syrup from Catie's hands and face. "She's very good at most games."

"Could have won," Catie declared. "Going to win next time, tell you what."

"Catie, how did you get here?"

She thought for a moment as Simon finished cleaning the syrup off her. "Don't remember. Remember falling, remember running, remember… remember being hurt too much. Needed a warm place, didn't know it was going to move."


	3. It's Never Just Breakfast

Nirsighted Chapter 3: It's Never Just Breakfast

At breakfast, Mal stood up and said, "Uhh… as y'all may er may not know, we've got a stowaway aboard."

"Not a stowaway," River corrected him. "Enemy… no, _friend_."

Mal looked confusedly at the blind girl, who was groping about the table, hunting for her spoon. "Kaylee, help yer friend a'fore she starves t' death!" he snapped at the mechanic. Kaylee, a frightened look on her face, reached over and stuck the spoon into River's hand. "Here ya go, sweetie. Eat yer oatmeal."

"_Anyway_," the captain continued firmly, "this girl is aboard and we've no idea who's lookin' fer her or what she may be capable of. Doc, whaddya think?"

"She appears fine physically," Simon answered after swallowing the mouthful of oatmeal he was eating. "I haven't yet been able to discern her mental state, but…"

"But what?" Jayne asked.

"She appears to be… the same as River. Maybe a little more regressed, certainly, but I would wager that the same neural stripping techniques used on River were used on Catie."

"So what does that mean?" Jayne demanded, throwing his spoon into his dish.

"Saw her through the mirror," River replied. "Mirror image, like a twin."

"She isn't your twin, sweetie," Kaylee said gently.

"Don't _know_ that," River said snottily, playing with her newfound spoon and dripping oatmeal on the table.

"Sweetie… she's blond, and at least two years younger than you…" Kaylee's voice trailed off, seeing that it wasn't making much of a difference to River.

"What're we gonna do with her, sir?" Zoë asked Mal.

The captain paused and looked at Simon. The doctor said nothing, so Mal said, "Find her a home, drop her there first thing."

"Can't," River said. "Won't let you."

"Look, sugar," Mal said, "we don't know her from Adam. She could be a danger t' us."

"Goes back there she'll die."

Before Mal could say anything further, Wash ran in. "Trouble!" the pilot yelled. "Kaylee, get t' th' engine!"

"What's wrong, honey?" Zoë asked.

"Y' said ya wanted us t' get t' St. Florin's, right?" Wash asked Mal. Upon the captain's nod, he continued, "Well, we're gonna get there, all right… in _pieces!"_

"What?" Kaylee asked.

"Secondary coupler went out just minute ago," Wash blurted. "Goin' down fer sure!"

Chaos broke out in the mess hall. Jayne took another swallow of oatmeal and darted for his bunk, leaping over his chair in his hurry to get out. Mal, Zoë, and Wash hurried for the bridge. Kaylee disappeared to the engine room, swearing over her shoulder.

"Help her!" River said pointedly to Simon.

"_Stay here_," he said firmly to his blind sister, and, with a backwards glance, ran out of the galley.

River let out a giggle, then stood up, arms outstretched, and began to look for Catie.

It didn't take long; she had stayed in the bunk where Simon had left her. "Wanna play again?" River asked as soon as she slid the door open.

Catie looked up distrustfully. "Can't see," she said scornfully.

"Didn't need to see to win last time," River retorted.

Catie thought about that. "'Kay, on one condition."

"Name it and she shall consider it."

"No syrup!"


	4. Hide And Seek

NirSighted Chapter 4: Hide-and-Seek

"Ahh, the paradise of St. Florin's," Wash said, almost poetically, a few moments later. They had pulled off yet another almost-hitch-free landing. Wash and Kaylee had played their respective parts quite well and had saved _Serenity_ from what Wash had been certain would be her destruction.

"Good job, honey," Zoë said, still a little breathless from the amazing landing.

"Right. Good job, Wash," Mal added.

"Anybody seen River?" Simon asked, sticking his head into the bridge. "She disappeared in the commotion."

Zoë turned to answer his question, but before she could speak, they heard someone counting in the hallway. "…Seven, eight, nine, ten! Apples, peaches, pumpkin pie! Who's not ready, holler 'aye'!" There was silence, so she continued, "Ready or not, here I come!"

"Catie?" Simon asked.

"The one, the only," the girl replied, smiling up at them. "Hide-and-go-seek. Going to win this time."

"Where's River?"

"If she knew, she would have won already."

Someone giggled, and Catie looked to her left. Nothing. She looked to the right, nothing. "Come out, come out, wherever you are," she murmured softly. "Going to win, going to beat you," she threatened.

"We ain't 'lowed to help, are we?" Kaylee murmured to Simon. When he turned, she smiled and pointed discreetly to the corner, where there was a barrel, supposedly empty. They both could see pale fingertips gripping the rim of the barrel. As Kaylee spoke, the fingers disappeared.

"Let's go," Mal's voice said into the corridor as he appeared, strapping on his holsters. "Jayne, no grenades."

Jayne, who had been in the process of stuffing two grenades into his pockets, said, "Aww, Mal!"

"We're pickin' up a passenger, whaddya need grenades fer?" Mal questioned.

"What if he's… y'know… armed?"

"He's a scientist," Zoë said, the voice of reason as always. "He won't be armed. He's goin' t' Irving-Keene, give the man a break."

"Ha!" Catie shrieked as she discovered River in the barrel. "Won this time fair and square."

"No syrup," River agreed, and tipped herself out of the barrel, sightless eyes and pale hands and dark hair all meshing together until she picked herself up.

"Let's go," Mal said on his way through the corridor. "We're gonna be late if we don't pick up the pace. Doc, you 'n the new girl is stayin' here with Wash. Don't let 'er outa yer sight, _dong ma?"_

"River can come with me," Kaylee offered. "C'mere, darlin'." She took River's hand in her own. "I'll make sure she don't run off, Simon."

"Thank you," Simon said as Kaylee led River from _Serenity_, following Mal. Zoë came behind them, still grumbling at Jayne, who was holstering up three of the biggest guns Simon had ever seen. And then they were gone.

"Game?" Catie suggested, looking at him. "Play game?"

"I'm not very good at games," he admitted. "River is much better than I am."

She thought. "Dinosaur man good at games?"

He chuckled at her description of Wash. "I don't know. Let's go ask him."

* * *

St. Florin's was not a large settlement, but it was large enough to be completely devoted to scientific research. Most of the scientists in the established community worked on finding cures for diseases, developing new medicines, and animal research and testing. Those outside the community worked on whatever they wanted, and did it both legally and illegally. Some of the outer labs worked on contacting "alien" races and other things as benevolent and harmless, and some worked on new ways to mutate children's bodies and brains. But no one ever caught them.

"Kaylee, ya take River t' th' marketplace an' don't come back 'til you've found the shiniest thing ya can," Mal ordered, putting three coins into Kaylee's hand. "If ya take 'bout twenty minutes, we should be finished speaking with Dr. Burk's superiors."

"Sure thing, Cap'n," Kaylee said. "Here, you can hold on 'ta the money, 'kay?" She pressed the coins into River's hands.

The sightless girl rubbed them with her fingers. "Ten, twelve, twenty. Nothing shiny for twenty credits."

"You'll find somethin', I'm rightly assured o' it," Mal said. "Jayne, Zoë, let's go."

They disappeared into a tall steel building. When the door had closed behind them, Kaylee said, "Well, what should we do?"

"Shiny?" River suggested.

"Nah, that's too easy. Cap'n doesn't really want us t' buy anythin', otherwise he wouldn'ta given us money. If'n he wanted us t' buy somethin', he woulda given us our pay early. What does he want?" Kaylee mused.

River had been listening to the various sounds of the hustle and bustle as scientists and lab workers passed them on their way to work in the various surrounding buildings. Kaylee took River's hand, the one without the twenty coin in it, and said, "Let's go."

River smiled knowingly; she knew what Kaylee meant.


	5. People Just Love to Play With Words

NirSighted Chapter 5: People Just Love to Play With Words

"Okay, I've got… this gem," Wash said, leaning forward to place his tiles on the board.

"That's not a word," Catie said flatly.

"What do you mean, it's not a word?" Wash demanded, rereading his careful selection.

"Not a word," she repeated, studying the Word-Spell board intently. "H-A-L-E-P doesn't spell anything. Not a word."

"I only have seven tiles!" Wash protested. "And Halep _is_ a word; it's the name of my favorite dinosaur!" As if to prove his point, he yanked a stegosaurus out of his vest pocket and waved it at the girl.

Simon had to chuckle. They'd conned Wash into playing Word-Spell after about twenty minutes of arguments. Wash had vehemently stated that he _hated_ Word-Spell, but then he remembered that, besides a child's game Kaylee was teaching River to play, a deck of cards, and Kaylee's set of jacks, they didn't own any other games.

"Why can't we just play poker?" Wash pouted as Catie set up another word.

"Because…" Simon started. "Because this is an innocent girl, and she doesn't need to be exposed to the horrors of poker just yet."

"And because I'd steal all your coin," Catie murmured as she spelled out another word on the board.

"And because she'd steal all your coin," Simon repeated to Wash.

"Not _his_," Catie said. "He knows how to play. Steal _your_ coin."

"Well, that's why we're not playing poker," Simon said. "Is it my turn yet?"

* * *

"Smells bad here," River said to Kaylee. Her left hand was clenched around the twenty credits Mal had given them, while her right hand gripped Kaylee's left in a way as to cut off the circulation.

"We'll be out of here in just a minute," Kaylee promised, her eyes searching the stalls and rundown buildings for what she sought. "Just a minute," she repeated as she felt River's arm stretching farther away from her. In another second, it was gone. Kaylee whirled around to make sure her friend had really wandered away.

Yes, it was as though River had disappeared. The dark-haired girl, who had been wearing a pink dress and her heavy boots, was nowhere to be seen.

"River?" Kaylee said, then yelled, "River!"

Simon was going to kill her. She'd lost his mentally unstable sister in a crowded marketplace, and if that wasn't bad enough, River was blind now, too.

"Kaylee, here I am," River's voice sang out, and Kaylee turned around. River was standing in front of one of the best-looking stalls. "Just looking at the pretties."

"Sweetie, those are Love-Bots. Not really fer ya," Kaylee said as she crossed the marketplace to regain control of River's hand.

"And not for twenty credits," River agreed. "Like this one, though." She pointed to the one farthest away from them, a lithe brunette with a fixed but cheery smile. "Could name her Lydia."

"Who's Lydia?"

River thought for a moment, and her sightless eyes flicked busily left to right as she tried to give Kaylee an answer. "Someone I forgot," she said at last.

Surprised by River's use of the first-person, Kaylee could only smile and hug her friend. "'S all right. We all forget somebody. Let's see what we can buy t' make th' cap'n happy."

They walked away from the Love-Bot stall, but they didn't see several pairs of eyes following them.

* * *

Wash groaned as Catie laid down another high-score word. "I hate this game," he confessed to Simon. "Can't you 'n I play poker 'n leave her t' her own devices?"

"Captain said to watch her," Simon said, rather lamely. He, too, was getting tired of watching Catie outscore both him and Wash, but he really wasn't very good at poker.

"Captain's usually wrong," Catie mused.

"Well, I'll give ya that," Wash agreed, "but I hate Word-Spell. I'm not good at it."

"Nobody's good at everything," Catie said, as though that would make Wash feel better.

"Really?" the pilot asked, sounding only a little eager. "Well then, what aren't ya good at? Let's play that."

"She's equally skilled in chess, checkers, poker, blackjack, gin rummy, regular rummy, pool, Parcheesi, backgammon, Word-Spell, Number-Line, five-circle, all kinds of marbles, dominoes, dice-throws, games of chance, logic puzzles, word-crosses…"

"Okay, I get it, you're a genius," Wash grumbled, interrupting the girl's litany.

Catie shrugged, tapping Word-Spell tiles on the table. "Not her fault. They made her this way."

Wash had obviously been considering the list. "Ya didn't mention six-circle," he said at last.

"Not very good at that," Catie said, as though ashamed of that fact.

"Great! Let's play!" Wash said.

"Wash, we don't own six-circle," Simon said, and he thought he was correct in that assumption.

That didn't seem to stop the pilot as he leapt from his chair and disappeared.


	6. Enter the Scientist

NirSighted Chapter 6: Enter the Scientist

Mal faced Dr. Burk. He had to admit, the man was not attractive. Well, he might be to some ladies in some circles, but none that Mal ran in. Dr. Burk was maybe forty-five, with extremely curly red hair sprouting all over his skull. His face was pale, dotted with an over-abundance of freckles, and he wore large, thick glasses, which he kept pushing up on his bulbous nose. And apparently no one had taught him how to dress, as he wore a loud red-checked shirt, a brown suit jacket, black pants, a bright yellow bow-tie, and dark green shoes, which were untied. Into his shirt pocket was tucked a plastic packet containing pens and a small calculator.

But Dr. Burk was a lot more than his looks. In fact, he was probably worth very close to if not all of his weight in credit for Mal and his crew. Dr. Burk was one of the premier scientists in St. Florin's, or at least he had been until his discovery of a molecule called AT-12 had been published in one of the leading scientific magazines. It was a great discovery and a wonderful published article, but it hadn't been published in the magazine Dr. Burk was employed by. In fact, it had been in one of the random outsider magazines, because the discovery of AT-12 apparently had some use to the rogue scientists in their search for "aliens."

Now, Mal wasn't a science buff, and he probably couldn't have told anyone what AT-12 did if he'd been held at gunpoint. But he knew that Dr. Burk's discovery had made him a very unpopular man, not only in St. Florin's but in the neighboring settlements and even in the neighboring worlds. So the good doctor had decided to retire to Irving-Keene, where his wife kept house with their twelve daughters. And he was taking the AT-12 and all related work with him, hoping to set up a laboratory there where he wouldn't be shot at every day, as he was here in St. Florin's. As such, he had agreed to pay Mal an almost-outrageous sum for transporting him halfway across the black to his family.

"Are ya sure 'bout this?" Mal asked for what seemed like the fifteenth time, though in reality it was only the fourth. Dr. Burk, besides being uncommonly unattractive and badly-dressed, was also a bit wishy-washy. They'd been trapped in his lab with him for half an hour now as he tried to get up his nerve to leave St. Florin's. "Look, we don't haveta tell anyone yer leavin'. We'll just sneak ya out."

"You can do that?" Dr. Burk asked.

"We kin."

"Well, I just don't _know_," Dr. Burk repeated for what seemed like the fifteenth time, though in reality it was probably the twenty-fifth. "I haven't seen my wife for two years now, haven't even seen the newest baby, but… but I love St. Florin's."

"St. Florin's don't love ya anymore," Mal said bluntly. "Fact, there's killers waitin' fer ya. Gettin' outa here's a right smart decision."

Dr. Burk paused in his pacing and rested his arm on one of the large black leather cases that were scattered around his lab. "My passage with you must be top-secret," he reminded Mal for only the third time. "No one must know I am with you."

"Believe me, Doc, nobody'll know and nobody'll care."

Dr. Burk appeared to think this over as he jimmied the catch on the case closest to him. Then it appeared his mind was made up. He snapped the catch with a definitive _click_. "All right then. Let's go."

Zoë moved into action; she'd been waiting half an hour for this. "All right, the fastest and most secreted way outa here's the back stairwell."

"No, no, not going to work," Dr. Burk said. "There are four guards at the base of that stairwell and they have instructions to stop me from leaving the building until I turn over the formula to Dr. Copenhagen. Which reminds me, how did you all get in here, anyway?"

"We're sneaky," Jayne said from the corner, where he was cleaning one of his guns.

"'Kay, not the back stairwell," Zoë said, trying to think of the other routes she'd planned. "Side stairwell?"

"No. Six guards."

"East corridor?"

"Seven."

"What does this molecule _do_, reproduce gold for ya?" Zoë muttered.

Dr. Burk gave her a kindly smile; she was not a scientist and couldn't possibly begin to understand.

"Any more routes?" Mal asked. He was looking out the door of the lab. There were no guards in the hallway; that was odd.

Zoë thought again. "There's always the best way… up."

"We're leavin' li'l Kaylee and River?" Mal asked, astonished by his first mate's sudden defection. He had thought Jayne would be the one to leave the other two, which…

"Don't need the moon-brain no how," Jayne said, voicing his unneeded opinion, seeing as three of the four people in the room knew his feelings for River and the fourth would find out soon enough.

"Don't mean _that_ kind of up, Jayne," Zoë said as though he was daft. "We'll go up a level, through the glass-walk to the hospital on the other side, come down again. Jayne can run over 'n get Kaylee and River, we'll get back t' _Serenity_ a'fore anyone notices the good doctor missing."

Dr. Burk was nodding as she spoke. "Yes, yes, that might work," he agreed. "But we'll have to move quickly, before the hallway guards come back from their break."

Mal moved to grab some of the cases.

"Easy, easy! Don't drop or shake those!"

"He obviously hasn't seen our mode o' transport," Jayne muttered.

"Okay, Doc, let's go," Mal said once he and Jayne were carrying the bulk of the cases. Dr. Burk carried two, and Zoë led the way with her gun drawn.

The hallway in front of Dr. Burk's lab was empty, as Mal had seen it on their entry. He let Zoë go ahead, checking left then right, before she led them to the end of the hall and pressed the button for the elevator. It arrived with a desultory _ding_ and they all got on.

Going up one level in the laboratory seemed to take forever. Mal found himself watching the ticker and counting under his breath. He stopped only when he realized it was something River would do.

"Here we are," Dr. Burk said as they arrived on the eleventh floor. Zoë got out first, left then right, and pronounced the hallway clear. Dr. Burk moved hurriedly towards the door on the east side of the corridor, which was connected to the glass-walk that linked the laboratory and the hospital next to it. He opened the door with a pass-key from his pocket, and led them through.

The glass-walk was full of other people, none of them guards, and none of them who gave Dr. Burk and his three "friends" a second glance. Most appeared to be doctors from the hospital, indicated by their white lab coats and colored scrubs. They walked along with official looking tablets or clipboards in their hands, chattering in quiet voices. Others were nurses with white crepe-soled shoes or nuns with high white wimples. And some were patients being wheeled along in wheelchairs or on gurneys.

Dr. Burk led the procession across the glass-walk, Zoë right behind him with her gun discreetly tucked at her side. Mal and Jayne followed behind, Jayne at the far rear, checking for enemies, of which there appeared to be none. There were no guards in the glass-walk, and as they exited the walk and came out into the opposite level of the hospital, they could see no other guards there either.

They got in another elevator, this time with a man lying on a gurney and a kind-looking nurse in a white uniform. "Going down?" the nurse asked. "What floor?"

"Ground level, please," Dr. Burk said.

The elevator began to descend slowly, stopping every now and then to collect more passengers. The kindly nurse and her gurney-bound patient got off on the fifth floor, and by the time they reached the ground level, the elevator was empty except for Dr. Burk, Jayne, Mal, and Zoë.

"Let's go," Mal said, and they exited the elevator. There were no guards here on the first level, just patients, their families, and a young blond woman behind the information desk.

Outside the sun was bright. Mal began to scan the square for Kaylee and River. It took him a few minutes, but he found them at last, sitting on the edge of a fountain about a hundred feet from Dr. Burk's office building. "Kaylee! Let's go!" he called to them.

Kaylee stood up, taking River's hand, and began to lead the younger girl towards them. "Howdy, Cap'n! Took ya long 'nough," she said.

"We ran into a bit o' trouble escapin' from the place," Mal explained as they headed back towards the docks. "What'd ya buy?"

"Somethin' I'm sure you'll be glad t' have," Kaylee replied with a smile. "Show ya soon as we get back t' _Serenity_."

The walk back took only ten minutes. When they were safely inside the cargo bay, Mal shouted, "Wash! Take us up!"

The pilot appeared from nowhere. "Thank God you're back," he said, sounding breathless.

"What's going on, baby?" Zoë asked.

"That GIRL!" Wash exclaimed.

"What? What happened with the girl?" Mal asked.

"Do we need t' shoot 'er?" Jayne questioned hopefully.

"No shooting!" River exclaimed.

"Right, no shootin'," Kaylee agreed.

"She beat me at six-circle!" Wash cried.

There was complete and semi-confused, semi-stunned silence for a moment. Then Kaylee said, "So?"

"So? SO? I'm the best six-circle player on Fauntleroy! I beat everyone five years running! I was the champion, the _reigning_ champion – I had a crown _and_ a trophy. No one could beat me, NO ONE, and then we get some crazy girl and _she _beats me!"

"Didn't even know we _had_ six-circle," Jayne mused. "I'm purty good at that 'un."

Wash scowled and disappeared into the bridge.

"Kaylee, will you show Dr. Burk to his quarters?" Mal asked. "You kin leave yer luggage here, it'll be just fine."

"Right this way," Kaylee said to Dr. Burk, leading him from the bay. Mal and Jayne dumped the doctor's many black cases into a spot near one of the immense boxes of oatmeal.


	7. Give Us the Good News, Please

NirSighted Chapter 7: Give Us the Good News, Please

Moments later, _Serenity_ was in the air, bound for Irving-Keene. Mal stepped into the bridge to find Wash still scowling as he flew. "Don't ya worry none, Wash. I'm sure you'll beat th' crazy girl 'fore the week is out."

"There's a wave fer Jayne," Wash related as though he hadn't heard Mal's comment.

"Who's it from?" Jayne asked as he appeared.

Wash hit the connecting wave button, and Jimena's face appeared on the screen. "It's yer lady-love," the pilot replied.

Jayne looked over at the wave screen. It was indeed Jimena Flavez. He and the rest of the crew of _Serenity_ had met Sergeant Flavez on Snozlund awhile back. While he and Jimena had shared what some would refer to as "an enchanted evening," and some would refer to as "blatant sexual role-playing with odd consequences," he had been of the mind that he would never see her again. "Why, howdy, Jimena," Jayne said, trying to cover up his surprise.

"Hello, Jayne," Jimena said warmly. "It's very good to see you again. I expect you're rather surprised to see me."

"Uh... no," Jayne replied rather lamely.

Jimena smiled, but her smile looked as though it was tinged with sadness and maybe a little anxiety. "I've missed you very much," she said. "I was hoping you and your crew are somewhere near Snozlund so I could see you soon."

Jayne looked at Mal, who was standing just outside the scope of the wave's camera. Mal shook his head in the negative.

"Well, no, not at th' moment," Jayne answered. "We've got a passenger bound fer... Irving-Keene, I think."

"Oh," Jimena said, and it was plain to see that she was sad. "Well then, I guess that's all." A hand snaked out and moved to turn off the wave on Jimena's end.

Wash glared at Jayne, his gaze seeming to say "You FOOL, ask her what's wrong!" Mal nodded as though to agree with Wash.

"Uh... what occasions th' wave?" Jayne questioned. "Not that it ain't lovely t' see ya, but..."

Jimena's hand stopped mid-way to the wave controls. For a moment she looked as though she was going to cry. "Jayne, I have some news."

"Oh," Jayne said densely, for he didn't understand what she meant.

Jimena swallowed. "Jayne, you're going to be a father."

"What?" Jayne asked, not sure if he'd heard Jimena correctly.

"I'm pregnant."

No one in the bridge moved for a split second. Then a crash reverberated through the ship as Jayne fainted.

* * *

"So, this is yer bunk," Kaylee said cheerfully as she unlocked the door to one of the passenger bunks and slid open the door. "Not much, but cozy 'nough for ya I hope."

Dr. Burk looked into the bunk. He wasn't too surprised at what he saw, and his face gave away none of his emotions. "Thank you," he said.

"If there's anythin' ya need, don't hesitate t' ask," Kaylee continued. "Dinner's gonna be served sooner er later, just come up t' th' galley whenever."

The doctor didn't say anything, so Kaylee smiled at him and left, heading back towards the engine room. She didn't like the scientist, but she wasn't sure what exactly she didn't like. Something was "off" about him; something was odd, something wasn't quite right. Maybe River would know.

She found River and Catie in the galley with Simon. The six-circle board was still set up, but the pieces were scattered all over the table, as though a fight had taken place. "What happened?" Kaylee asked as she came in.

"Wash got a bit angry when Catie beat him," Simon answered with a smirk. "He upended the board."

Mal came in. "Doc, we need ya in th' bridge."

"What's wrong?" Simon asked, standing up.

River reached across the table and began to put the six-circle pieces back in color-order on the board, her sightless eyes focused on her brother.

"Jayne, he's passed out. Had a bit o' a nasty shock," Mal answered.

"What happened?" Zoë asked, entering.

"Jayne got some bad news," Mal said.

"Not his Ma, was it?"

"No, much worse."

"What could be worse than his Ma dyin'?"

"Findin' out that after all these years, all o' his measures t' protect 'gainst his legacy carryin' on have finally failed."

It took a moment for this information to sink in to those gathered around the table. "Wait a moment," Simon said. "You mean to say..."

"I mean to say that Jayne's going to have himself a bit o' a family comin' soon," Mal replied.

"Oh. Well, in that case..." Simon stood from the table and followed Mal into the bridge.

"Wanna play six-circle?" Kaylee asked, sitting down across from River.

River shook her head as she carefully set the pieces back into place, still sightlessly. "No."

"Why not?"

"Have to play another game," the girl replied.

"No syrup," Catie said hurriedly.

"No, no syrup," River agreed, but her voice sounded as though she was very far away.

"Does it haveta do with the scientist?" Kaylee asked, watching River roll the ball-bearing-sized pieces into their grooves. "I think somethin's not right with him."

"Twelve daughters in fourteen years," River said softly, still far away, an orange piece slipping from her fingers but miraculously hitting its groove. Somehow she knew exactly where each color went, even though Simon had said she was completely blind. "Never seen two of them, can't remember his wife touching him, only wants to get away from the bad. Secrets? Maybe."

"Something's wrong with him," Catie murmured, watching River roll the six-circle pieces onto the board.

River looked up suddenly, her fingers freezing with a handful of blue pieces. When she spoke, her voice was absolutely clear. "He's coming."

Before Kaylee could ask what was going on, Catie began to scream. It was like nothing Kaylee had ever heard; it was a scream of unearthly proportions. River's hands were hit with a sudden spasm and the handful of twenty-or-so blue six-circle pieces she had been holding scattered every-which-way, hitting the table like hail, dropping off the table and spreading everywhere on the floor. Without even looking – though why was Kaylee so surprised? – River grabbed her new friend's hand, yanked Catie out of her chair, and pulled the girl from the galley, her booted feet clanking on the grate, Catie's stumbling, as the two of them disappeared.

"What's going on?" Kaylee heard Dr. Burk's voice ask as the man appeared. He had brushed his unruly red hair and sported a confused expression.

Simon reappeared at that point, he and Mal supporting Jayne. "Was that River?" he asked worriedly.

Kaylee shook her head wordlessly.

"Okay," he said, realizing that there was a time and place for an explanation and this clearly wasn't it. "Let's get him in here," he said to Mal as they moved Jayne towards the couch. "I suspect he'll be around in a moment."

"Is something wrong?" Dr. Burk asked.

"Jayne's just had a bit of a shock," Mal explained as he and Simon dropped Jayne onto the couch. The mercenary's eyes flickered and he grunted, but he made no move to wake up.

"I heard screams," Dr. Burk continued, still looking worried.

"Doc, I ain't gonna lie t' ya, yer prob'ly gonna hear those a lot onboard this ship," Mal related. "We got two girls onboard who ain't quite right, and either o' them is liable t' start screamin' at the wrong look. Speakin' o' which, where'd they go?"

"I'll find 'em," Kaylee offered, glad for an excuse to get away from Dr. Burk and his eyes.

She disappeared as Jayne grunted again. "Jayne!" Mal yelled. "Jayne, wake up, ya big goon!"

Jayne opened one eye suspiciously and looked at Simon and Mal, who were standing over him. "What's goin' on?" he asked. Then he seemed to remember the events of the past few moments. "She wasn't serious, was she? Just a joke, right?"

Simon shook his head. "I'm afraid not."

"Well, _ta ma de_," Jayne muttered, dropping a large hand over his eyes. "Ain't good news… ain't even _remotely_ good news."

"I think it's right sweet yer gonna have a baby," Mal said, even though he wasn't quite sure if that was true.

"Who's having a baby?" Inara asked as she appeared, blue gown flowing around her. She moved towards the cabinets and retrieved a foil packet of crisped-rice crackers, which she opened delicately, popping a cracker into her mouth.

"Ya remember Sergeant Flavez from Snozlund?" Mal replied, turning to face her.

She put another cracker into her mouth, chewed, swallowed. "Yes, I do. Who's the father?"

Jayne groaned.

"Not Jayne… oh. Congratulations," Inara said.

"I don't believe you've met Dr. Burk, 'Nara," Mal said. "Dr. Fred Burk, this is Inara."

"Pleased to meet you," Inara said, shaking Dr. Burk's hand. "What sort of work do you do?"

Dr. Burk was fairly blushing under the Companion's gaze. "Uhh… I'm a scientist. Molecule reproduction, genetic splicing, that sort of thing. All purely legitimate, all purely legal."

"How fascinating," Inara said. Mal had to give her credit; it sounded as though she was genuinely interested. "You're bound for Irving-Keene, is that right?"

Dr. Burk nodded. "That's right. Been living on St. Florin's for most of nine years now, but Irving-Keene is still my home base."

"Irving-Keene is a lovely place," Inara said. "I've been there a few times myself. Do you know the Reverend Father Peter-Paul Magellan? He's a close friend of mine."

"Can't say I do," Dr. Burk replied. "My family's not the religious sort, except for my wife. But she attends the Seventh Church of the Seven Saints."

"Oh," Inara said. "Well, welcome to _Serenity_."

With that, she took her foil packet of crackers and disappeared back to her shuttle.

"We gotta go t' Snozlund," Jayne managed to mumble, his hand still over his eyes. "Gotta get Jimena."

"Wait a tick," Mal said.

"Mal, I _know_ it ain't a good idea, but, heck – it's my kid. We gotta go get her."

"And what, she's just gonna live on _Serenity?"_

"Seemed t' enjoy bein' here last time," Jayne muttered. "Maybe too much, I'm thinkin'."

Mal sighed. "I'll tell Wash t' set course fer Snozlund; we can pick up Jimena tomorrow and still make it t' Irving-Keene on time. That all right with ya, Doc?" he asked Dr. Burk.

"That sounds fine," Dr. Burk agreed. "I'm not in any hurry to get back to Irving-Keene as it is; I haven't waved my wife yet."

"Ya might wanna do that," Mal suggested.

"Yeah, she might have a surprise fer ya," Jayne grumbled. "A right gorram surprise…"


	8. The Morning After

NirSighted Chapter 8: The Morning After

They landed on Snozlund the next morning before the sun was even up. While most of _Serenity_'s crew still slept, Jayne donned his parka and boots and left the docks, headed for the commune where Jimena lived with other members of the Snozlund Militia.

He couldn't exactly blame her for contacting him. After all, as Jayne had learned, the Snozlund Militia forbade its officers from marrying or having families, although there was no regulation against dating or fraternizing with the other sex. Within a week of a superior officer discovering of a secret marriage or a hidden pregnancy, the Militia member in question would be given a length of time in which to clear out of the communal barracks at the commune. In Jimena's case, she had been allowed to stay for quite awhile. While most of the Militia members had family on Snozlund, Jimena had no one. Her closest family member was a half-sister on Garoulalek, which was farther away than the Militia was willing to pay for travel expenses. But at long last, the Militia's patience with Jimena had grown thin, prompting her wave to Jayne.

And here he was, coming to save her.

He had never considered starting a family, had no interest in marriage. He thought of himself as solely a Lone Ranger; no matter how long he lived on _Serenity_, he didn't feel like "one of the group." Even Doc and his crazy sister seemed to fit in better than Jayne did some days. He always felt that something was missing, a hole he couldn't explain and couldn't, for the life of him, fill.

Maybe Jimena and her – no, _their­ _– child was just what Jayne needed to fill that odd hole in his life.

The commune was already bustling when Jayne arrived, sweating from the fifteen-minute walk from the docks. The gatehouse guarding the entrance was manned by an elderly gentleman. The medals pinned to his navy coat marked him as a veteran of the Snozlund Civil War. He gave Jayne a cursory once-over, then barked, "Identification!"

Jayne fished in his pocket for his not-much-used identification card, which he slid through a slot in the glass partition. The old man picked it up, held it up, and peered over his glasses at it. He looked at Jayne once, apparently to confirm that Jayne was indeed the same person as in his photo. "Business here?" the man barked.

"I'm, uh, here to see Sergeant Jimena Flavez."

The man gave a quick burst of laughter. "She ain't a sergeant any longer, sonny, now she's got a bun in the oven."

Jayne took his ID back from the old man. The man's crude language seemed cruel to him, even though he knew that if it had been any other situation, any other woman, he would not have hesitated to make the same judgment. "Thank you, sir," he managed to say.

The guard pressed a button and the gates swung open, allowing Jayne into the commune. Most of the buildings were of steel and glass construction, starting to glimmer in the rising sun, but the barracks at the far west end of the compound were brick, rising six or seven stories into the air. Jayne headed towards the women's barracks. The double doors at the entrance were locked, but there was a slot in one of them. Seated behind the doors was a young woman, maybe seventeen, with short red hair and a dubious expression. Jayne slid his ID card through the slot and waited while she ran it through a carding machine. "Everythin' in order?" he asked as she watched the screen on the machine.

"You're here to see Jimena Flavez?" she asked without looking up.

"Yeah."

At last she looked up and said, "Everything checks out. Ms. Flavez is in room 341. Elevator's over there."

She pushed the latch bar on the door and it swung outward to let him in. He retrieved his ID card and got into the elevator, pushing the button for "3." On the third floor, he got out nervously, following the signs to room 341. Upon finding the door, he almost turned around and walked away. Then he remembered why he had come, and he steeled himself.

He knocked.

* * *

Back on _Serenity_, everyone was asleep. Wash had crawled back into bed moments after landing on Snozlund, and he slept peacefully now, curled next to Zoë. The ship was silent.

In a space where nothing had been before, something appeared. Or, rather, some_one_. She was not supposed to be there, but that had never stopped her before. From her pocket, she retrieved a small monitoring device and swung it right then left. Convinced that everyone slumbered serenely, she switched off the meter and found herself a small space to wait.

* * *

"Who is it?"

"Uh, it's me. I mean, it's Jayne."

The door opened and a blond woman was standing there. She had a stern face and her hair was pulled back into a severe bun. She wore a navy Snozlund Militia uniform, which included a crisply starched white neckerchief and shiny black shoes. "Mr. Cobb, I presume?"

"Uh, yeah. That's me."

Her fierce expression didn't change. "I'm Barbara Eden, Mr. Cobb. Please, come in."

The room behind the door was sparse, plain, and symmetrical, though larger than Jayne was expecting. Two twin beds took up most of the space; one was neatly made with a black wool blanket, the other was bare. The room contained two desks and two bookcases; one of each appeared "occupied," the other empty. Several pieces of rugged luggage were on the floor, black canvas with brown leather trim and heavy brass zippers, along with a few cardboard boxes.

Standing at the window with her back to Jayne and Barbara Eden was Jimena. She made no move to turn around as Jayne entered.

"Jimena, dear," Barbara said, trying to sound chipper, "Mr. Cobb is here."

"Then this is it, isn't it?" Jimena wondered dully. "Everything I've ever worked for down the drain because of one fateful night."

"I think it's time to go," Barbara continued as though she had not heard Jimena.

"That's just the way it goes… work hard to make something of yourself only to lose it because you can't control yourself, mate with any stupid, common slob who walks by."

"Hey!" Jayne said suddenly. "I ain't no stupid, common slob. I ain't a slob at all, matter o' fact. And I think ya had better be thinkin' about who yer talkin' to. After all, I _am_ rescuin' ya from the Militia. Ya don't come with me, they'll kick ya out, and far as I know, ya ain't got anywhere t' go."

That got Jimena's attention. She turned from the window, and Jayne saw that behind her small glasses, her eyes were full of tears. "Oh, _Jayne_," she managed to sob. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean any of that, honestly, I promise."

Jayne took a few steps forward, until he was standing close enough to hug her. He put his hand awkwardly on her shoulder, patted it a few times. "'S all right, Jimena. I understand."

"I'll get a cart for the luggage," Barbara Eden said. Jayne had forgotten she was there, but as soon as he turned to look at her, she was already out the door in search of a cart. And Jayne was alone with Jimena.

She didn't look much different than she had a few months ago, when _Serenity_ and her crew had last been on Snozlund. They'd been there to steal a famous set of mammoth bones, but the job had turned out to be a hoax. The Jimena Jayne had met then was petite, with soft brown hair and a take-charge attitude. He'd thought she was incredibly beautiful.

She was still petite, and her hair was still combed back neatly, clipped in place with a sterling-silver barrette in the shape of a knot. Her pale face, though now marred with tears and slightly rounder, still had that glow he'd admired when he'd first met her. In fact, the only major difference Jayne could discern was a round belly. _Way_ round. About-to-burst round. It made him nervous. She was definitely pregnant, no doubt 'bout that. That was him in there. Well, half of him. He wasn't sure he liked it.

"Jayne?" Jimena asked, and he snapped back to reality, realizing that he had been staring at her. "Everything all right?"

"Yeah, sugar, everythin's fine," Jayne said. "Just… never been in a barracks a'fore."

"It's not anything special," she said, attempting a smile at him. It fell flat.

Before he could attempt to reply to that, Barbara Eden reappeared, pushing a cart that was nothing more than a metal frame, strung over with canvas, on wheels. "Let's load up and get you all back to the docks," she said cheerfully. "Mr. Cobb, will you help me with the luggage? Jimena, why don't you get your coat?"

As Jayne helped Barbara Eden put the boxes and bags into the cart, he watched Jimena go to the closet – not exactly a closet, just a metal bar screwed to the wall, divided in two by a wooden slat – and get her coat from the empty side. The other side was full of clothing – T-shirts, sweaters, dress pants, and overalls, plus two Snozlund Militia uniforms, and two pairs of shoes.

"Is that it?" Barbara Eden asked when they had finished loading everything into the cart.

"Just about," Jimena said softly. She crossed the room to the empty side, to the empty desk. She slid open one of the drawers and pulled something out, secreting it in her hand. She slipped it into her coat pocket. "Okay. Let's go."

Jayne pushed the cart down to the elevator and pushed the "down" button. Jimena stood stiffly as Barbara Eden hugged her. "Goodbye, Jimena," Barbara said softly.

The elevator arrived with a ding and Jayne wheeled the cart on. He held the sliding door open as he waited for Jimena. She got in and the door closed on Barbara Eden's worried face.

It was official. They were together, and they were leaving.


	9. The Air Near My Fingers

NirSighted Chapter Nine: The Air Near My Fingers

Mal awoke to a noise he couldn't discern. He opened his eyes blearily and peered into the half-dark of his bunk. In the light from his table lamp, he could see a tablet, two styluses, a handful of chocolate beans, his Rosy Cheek Fern, and a map. Nothing amiss there.

He got out of bed, shrugged into a shirt and his holster, and climbed up the ladder to the main deck. Wash and Zoë's bunk was still closed. Kaylee's bunk was open, but he knew that was only because she was sleeping in the engine room, having had to get up around one that morning to deal with the pressure stabilizer before they'd landed on Snozlund. He quickly checked in the bridge; no one except Wash's dinosaurs was occupying the space.

The galley was empty. Doc and his sister were slumbering in their bunks. So were Catie and the scientist. 'Nara was still in her shuttle, he could tell that even without looking, as the door was still closed and latched.

He wound his way down to the cargo bay. Everything looked in order there; Dr. Burk's cases were still stacked in two large piles and they looked untouched. The cargo bound for Irving-Keene, barrels of Brisbane sugar for the sugar-drink makers on the moon, looked intact as well.

Having found nothing, Mal was just about to go back to bed when someone began to bang on the outer door. "Mal! Let us in, fer cryin' out loud, it's cold out here!" Jayne's voice yelled through the door.

As Mal went to open the doors to the airlock, a movement caught his eye. But as soon as he turned his head, the movement stopped. Nothing was there. Nothing was hidden in the piles of sugar barrels. He moved towards the airlock doors, hit the orange opening button, and waited.

The door opened to reveal Jayne and a very pregnant Jimena. Jayne was pushing a cart in front of him; a quick glance at its contents revealed luggage. "Welcome, Jimena," Mal said.

"Hello again, Captain Reynolds," Jimena replied.

"Didn't think anybody was gonna be up," Jayne said as he pushed the cart to a stop near one of the barrels of sugar.

"Thought I heard somethin', thought I'd get up 'n check it out," Mal informed him. "Nothin' goin' on, though. Everythin's quiet." To Jimena, he said, "I hope you'll be comfortable here. Ya need anythin', ya just ask anybody. We'll get Doc t' give ya an exam soon as he can, if that's all right with ya."

"That sounds fine," Jimena said.

"I'll show her t' her bunk," Jayne offered. "Yer gonna have one o' th' passenger bunks fer now," he informed Jimena. "We ain't married as o' yet…"

"No, that's fine," Jimena interrupted. "I'd really just like to sleep."

"Right. Right," Jayne agreed. "This way, up th' stairs."

They left and Mal was alone in the cargo bay again. He yawned and ran his hand through his hair. He was just about to head back to his own warm bunk when a movement caught his eye again.

He whirled around and was just in time to see the figure of a little girl disappear behind one of the larger barrels of Brisbane sugar. "Hey!" he cried out, and darted towards the barrel. He reached it, looked behind it, but the girl was gone.

Now Mal was puzzled. Where had she gone?

"Captain Reynolds," a voice said from behind him.

He turned and saw the little girl there. She was quite petite in stature, and maybe came up to his waist. Her hair was waist-length and pulled back in two severe braids. Her eyes were intelligent and green, looking at him with curiosity. She was wearing a purple T-shirt with a cartoon character on it, a pair of black leggings, sturdy boots, and a pack. "Who in th' ruttin' hell are ya and what in the gorram 'verse are ya doin' on my ship?" he bellowed.

The little girl didn't appear fazed by his yelling. "Captain Reynolds, we don't have time for you to yell at me."

"Again, who in th' hell are ya an' what are ya doin' on my ship?"

She sighed and removed a tablet from the pack she was wearing. She flattened her hand against it, then handed it to Mal.

He scanned the tablet, reading what was scrolling there. Then he looked up at the girl; for some reason he thought she had disappeared, but she still stood in front of him. "Ya ain't a little girl?"

"I am not, but this corporeal form has been through a lot, and it has its limitations; therefore, I often appear as much younger than my age."

"Yer not Alliance?"

"I am not."

"So who in the hell _are_ ya?"

"My name is Niriel Shatter-Glass, as it says there," she informed him, "but you can call me Nir."

"Not Alliance?"

"Still not Alliance; I haven't changed my allegiance since the last time you asked," she agreed.

"What are ya here fer?"

"I have reason to believe that you and your crew are in certain and grave danger due to the presence of one or more passengers on your boat."

Mal thought about this for a moment. "Ya ain't here t' take Catie away, are ya?"

She shook her head. "Catie is of no interest to me. She seems safe here with you, and I am reasonably confident that you will make the right decisions regarding her safety."

"River?"

She shook her head again. "No. I would not dream of taking Miss Tam away from her brother. Besides, both of them, and Catie, will be needed before the week is through."

"Jimena? Is this about the baby?"

"It is not, or if it is, I do not know of it yet."

"You a Reader too?"

"I come from a long line of them," Nir agreed, "and genetic predisposition is nothing to argue with."

"We have enough Readers," Mal informed her.

"I will not be staying long," she replied. "I am here to do my duty and then I will be no more, at least for you."

She took her tablet back from Mal's stunned hands and returned it to her pack. "I would not worry, Captain Reynolds. You will hardly know I'm here. I am, as my father used to say, the wind beneath all of our wings."

With that, not waiting for him to respond, she simply disappeared.

Stunned, Mal waved his hand through the air where she had been only a moment before. Nothing. It had apparently not been a trick.

Scowling, he went back to the galley and found Kaylee at the table drinking strong-brew. "Ever' thin' all right, Cap'n?" she asked, setting down her mug.

Mal shook his head. "We got a new 'un on the boat, and she's a right mystery."

"What're ya talkin' 'bout, Cap'n? Jimena?"

"If I was talkin' 'bout Jimena, I woulda said Jimena," he grumbled at her.

She looked up at him, puzzled. "There's somebody else on board? Who is it?"

"Another girl," he said, pouring himself a cup of strong-brew. "And this one's even weirder than the other two."

He sat down across from her. "By th' way, what did you 'n Li'l Albatross buy back on St. Florin's?"

She smiled as though she'd been waiting for him to ask. With a quick rummage in her coverall pockets, she came up with a yellow netting bag, small enough to fit in the palm of her hand. She slid it across the table to him.

Mal picked it up and undid the lace at the top, spilling its contents onto the table. A glimmering stream of gold greeted his eyes. "Li'l Kaylee… what is this?"

Kaylee grinned and reached forward to pick up one of the gold pieces. With a calculating fingernail, she scraped the layer of gold off it and showed him the dark, exposed underside. "Choc' lat," she informed him with a grin, and dropped it into her mouth.

"Why, li'l Kaylee, I hadn't expected ya t' know exactly what I wanted ya t' buy," Mal said with a pleased smile. He took one of the chocolate coins from the pile and peeled off the gold. "And m' favorite flavors, no less."

"They only had two," Kaylee replied, swallowing her mouthful of chocolate. "Was a close-out. Now, what's this 'bout a new passenger?"

"A girl… she just appeared t' me right after Jayne brought Jimena on. Said her name was… somethin' odd, she's here t' protect us."

"From what? We in trouble with th' Alliance 'gain?" Kaylee asked, reaching for another chocolate coin.

"She says she ain't Alliance, and fer some odd reason, I believe her." Mal swallowed another mouthful of strong-brew and grimaced. "This is _some_ strong-brew."

"From Shepherd Book's stash," Kaylee informed him, drinking her own with nary a groan. "Got it on Battleboury last time he was there, or so he told me."

"Ahh," Mal said, not wanting to say anything else about the dear departed Shepherd. He finished his strong-brew and stood up. He was about to tell Kaylee he was going back to sleep when a scream shot through the ship. "Gorram it," he muttered.


	10. Trouble By Any Other Name

NirSighted Chapter Ten: Trouble By Any Other Name

"Sounded like it came from below," Kaylee noted, setting down her mug.

"Best go check it out."

They hurried down to the passenger bunks just in time to see Simon emerging from his, bleary-eyed. "River?" he managed to ask.

"Dunno," Kaylee replied.

Simon undid the latch holding River in her room and slid the door open. His sister was curled up on her bunk, blissfully asleep and completely unaware of the world. Simon sighed, almost in relief. It wasn't his sister, so it had to be someone else.

"Catie," Kaylee said as Simon shut River's door and locked her in. "It has to be."

Simon nodded in agreement, moving swiftly to Catie's door and pulling it open. His heart sunk as he registered the empty bunk. "She's gone."

"_Tzao-gao_," Mal muttered. "Y' mean she's loose in m' ship?"

"I believe that's probably true," Simon agreed.

"Captain Reynolds." A voice broke through their conversation. It sounded as though it was coming from the galley. "Captain Reynolds, you might want to come here quickly."

"Who is that?" Kaylee asked.

"That's our new 'un," Mal replied. "Let's go."

They arrived in the galley to find Nir holding Catie's left wrist tightly. The larger crazy girl was trying to pull away from Nir, who was repeating something over and over in a language Mal couldn't understand, followed by, "Easy. Easy, Catie."

"What's goin' on?" Mal asked, approaching Nir and Catie.

"You may want to stay back, Captain Reynolds," Nir said, her eyes still on Catie. "Easy, Catie. Not here to hurt you." She held out her hand. "Just hand it over, shh, easy, easy, Catie. Not going to hurt you."

Catie jerked back on Nir's grip, but the little-girl-sized agent was stronger than her size suggested. The tugging did nothing to loosen Nir's wrist-hold, but as Catie's body reacted to Nir's stubbornness, something popped out of Catie's opposite hand and headed for the floor. Mal knelt to pick up the object, which resembled a small, red, rubber ball.

"NO!" Nir yelled. Startled, Mal's hand missed the object. "I apologize, Captain Reynolds, but it is in your best interests _not_ to touch that!"

"What the heck is it?" Kaylee asked.

Catie screamed and threw her entire effort into getting away from Nir, and at last succeeded. The momentum knocked her off balance, and she hit the floor, landing on her back. As she fell, the ball began to roll away from Mal, leaving a wet indentation where it had previously been. Nir hurried over to the object and removed a swatch of cloth from her pack. Covering her hand completely in the cloth, she reached for the ball, picked it up, and wrapped it in the cloth. Those gathered in the galley could hear her sigh in relief.

But she wasn't done; she quickly moved to her pack and deposited the object in it, then ran over to Catie, who was lying on the floor, whimpering. "Doctor Tam, I will need your assistance," she said without looking at Simon.

Simon looked confusedly at Mal, who nodded. The doctor crossed the galley and stood next to Nir. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Catie has been infected," Nir said, nodding to the girl's hand, which was now covered in large blisters. "She will need treatment as follows: fifteen grams of asybrinthe now, ten additional grams in twenty minutes by standard IV push. That should decrease the swelling and the pain. In an hour the blisters must be drained, a standard syringe drainage kit should take care of that. You must treat the remaining sores with anhydride brinsomill and bandage accordingly. Do not touch the fluid drained from these blisters; extreme caution must be taken."

"How do you know…?" Simon began.

"I was trained as a doctor," Nir informed him hurriedly. "There isn't time. If we are to slow the infection and save Catie's life, you must treat her immediately. Don't stop to think if you have the necessary materials; I am confident you do. Hurry now, help her. She cannot be moved now, you must go and get the supplies and bring them here. Miss Frye, help him if you would."

Simon and Kaylee, Simon giving Nir a backwards look, moved quickly towards the infirmary to collect the supplies. Nir knelt down next to Catie and brushed the girl's hair out of her glassy, pain-filled eyes. "Shh, shh, _bao-bei_, things will be all right in a few minutes."

"What the hell is that?" Mal demanded.

"That," Nir said, "was your first experience with a Non-Preferential Biological Agent Promotional Device, or a NPBAP-D. I believe that it has been placed on the ship to harm one of your crew."

"How d' we know ya didn't bring it on with ya?" Mal questioned.

"You may examine it if you do not believe me," Nir said, "but it is definitively Alliance make. Only a high-ranking official or someone with access to the supplies and weaponry could have brought this onto your ship. You know very well, Captain Reynolds, that I do not have the necessary credentials to procure such an object."

"What're we gonna do with it?" Mal asked, looking nervously to the pack slung cross-wise on Nir's body.

"It must be destroyed," Nir replied quickly. "I will take care of the necessary arrangements once Catie's treatment is seen to. This device could be hazardous to all of us here on _Serenity_."

Simon and Kaylee reappeared carrying supplies. Simon knelt next to Catie, snapping on gloves, and quickly inserted an intravenous port into the crook of her elbow. "You said fifteen grams?" he asked, looking up at Nir for guidance.

"That is correct, Dr. Tam."

Simon pulled a small hard plastic packet from his pocket and pulled two tablets from it. He tucked the tablets into a plastic IV bag through the plug on the front, then gently agitated the bag until the tablets dissolved. The bag was hooked to Catie's IV port. Simon watched as the asybrinthe flowed swiftly through the port, delivering the medicine to the girl.

"Catie," Nir said, leaning in towards the girl, who had closed her eyes. "Catie, can you hear me?"

"She hears," Catie whispered.

"Captain Reynolds, if you would be so kind, will you go and fetch Miss Tam and Companion Serra? It is important that I speak to them," Nir said, turning to look at Mal.

"Whaddya need with River 'n 'Nara?" Mal asked.

"It is not for you to know at this juncture," Nir replied snippily. "You would do well to fetch them for me, and in due time we will know exactly how much danger we are in."

Mal didn't much like being ordered around by a little girl, no matter her age, but he left the galley as he had been asked and brought River and Inara to the galley.

"Who's this?" Inara asked.

"Companion Serra," Nir greeted her. "My name is Niriel Shatter-Glass, but you may call me Nir. I need to ask you some questions regarding the stop made on St. Florin's yesterday."

"What about it?" Inara asked. The Companion was dressed in an ankle-length, sea-green chemise with matching slippers. A green shawl was thrown over her shoulders.

"What did your activities consist of from the time of landing on St. Florin's until the takeoff for, as it was then, Irving-Keene?"

"I'm not sure I understand."

"She wants t' know who ya were with," Mal said out of the side of his mouth, amused by Nir's interrogation.

"How is this any of your business?" Inara asked a bit frostily.

"Your crew is in danger, Companion Serra. A biological weapon was placed on this ship some time yesterday, while _Serenity_ was in St. Florin's. A timeline of your events will help to place exactly when and by whom."

"Just tell her, 'Nara," Kaylee said. "It hurt Catie, whatever it was."

Inara looked down at the girl lying on the floor, her eyes closed, Simon's IV drip running into her. She thought. "We arrived on St. Florin's shortly after breakfast; it must have been around nine or nine-thirty. I had an appointment in the town at ten o'clock. I left the ship with everyone else, and I returned at twelve-thirty."

"Who was this appointment with?" Nir asked.

Inara looked from Mal to Catie. "It was with a scientist."

"That does not help me much, Companion Serra; eighty-five percent of the people on St. Florin's are scientists. If you are worried about this appointment getting in trouble with either my employers or the Guild of Companions, you need not; nothing you tell me will leave the ship. The information is solely to help me ascertain where the biological agent device came from." Nir gazed sternly at Inara, who made no move to speak. For a moment or two there was a stare down.

"If you must know, I was with Dr. Emile Brightman," Inara said at last.

"Thank you, Companion Serra," Nir replied. "Your honesty is appreciated."

"How did ya know she was tellin' the truth?" Kaylee asked.

"It is one of my many gifts," Nir informed her. "Miss Tam, I will ask you an almost identical question. What did your activities on St. Florin's consist of?"

River's blind eyes were flicking left, then right, quickly. One pale hand came up and tucked a strand of long dark hair behind her ear. Then she said, "Got off into the sunshine. Left me and Kaylee, went to the marketplace. Saw Love-Bots, not for me though because they're girls, not a Companion like 'Nara, don't actually need one. Bought chocolate. We came back home, went away, went to get Jimena."

"Miss Tam, did anyone approach _Serenity_ while the crew was otherwise occupied?" Nir questioned.

River thought. "Bright flash, scurry-hurry, bright flash once more, then red, yellow, red, red, red."

"Who approached the ship, Miss Tam?"

"She can't tell you," Simon said from behind Nir.

Nir, who was as tall as Simon was on his knees, gave him a frown. "That's all I'm going to get?"

"Thought you was a Reader," Mal remarked sardonically.

"I _am_, Captain Reynolds," Nir replied. "And I am quite aware that Miss Tam is as well."

She reached into the pack she wore and removed a rectangular board. Laminated on the top in alphabetical order were large blue letters as well as many Chinese characters. Nir held the board up in front of River and gently brought the girl's hand down on the board. "Spell out the name of the person who brought the NPBAP-D onto _Serenity_. Can you do that for me, Miss Tam?"

"She doesn't answer to that," River replied. "Not a miss or a missus, simply a River."

Nir looked a little taken aback. "River, as it is, then. Is it possible for you to spell out the name of the person who…?"

"She's blind," Simon interrupted.

"I am well aware of that, Dr. Tam," Nir said without looking at Simon. "She is a Reader, the device is merely an augmentative communication board."

River's fingers were moving quickly over the board. At last her right pointer finger hesitated, then stopped on "B."

"B? Are you sure?" Nir asked.

"B," River agreed. "B is for baseball, book, bright."

"Okay. What's the next letter?"

River's fingers began to move again. Before she could stop on the next letter, Catie gasped.

"She seems to be in a bit of pain, um, Nir," Simon said. "Is there anything else we can do for her?"

"Did you give the second round of asybrinthe?" Nir asked, still watching River.

"Yes," Simon replied.

"You can give…" Nir thought. "You can give acacic drops for the pain if you have them, no more than five milliliters."

"We have acacic drops," Simon assured her. "I'll go get them now."

"What's the next letter, Miss… River?" Nir questioned.

River tilted her head back and ran her finger along the middle row of letters. Then she came to a stop on one of the letters. "No more," she said.

"What?" Nir asked.

"Can't tell anymore, too fuzzy, too bright." River took her hands away from the communication board.

Simon reappeared with a small bottle and an eyedropper. He administered the drops into Catie's mouth.

"What does that mean?" Mal asked. "If even she can't tell, what're the odds of us findin' out who did this?"

"The odds are still very high and in our favor, Captain Reynolds," Nir replied crisply. "There are now three Readers, a scientist, and a doctor onboard your ship."

"I'm all fer destroyin' that thing," Mal said. "How fast can ya do that?"

"Quite quickly." Nir moved away from them and headed towards the cargo bay. Mal, River, Kaylee, and Inara followed her. As she reached the airlock, Nir reached into her pack and drew out the fabric-wrapped biological weapon, moving to hit the "open" button.

"Hang on a gorram minute!" Mal demanded. "Ya can't just open up the airlock, we'll all get sucked out in ta the black!"

"Do you not trust me, Captain Reynolds?" Nir asked, a little mockingly.

"I trust ya, just not with m' airlock," Mal shot back.

"We cannot leave the NPBAP-D onboard _Serenity_ or it will infect the rest of us," Nir informed him. "How else do you suggest we dispose of it?"

"There's always th' disposal chute," Kaylee suggested.

"Do you have one?" Nir questioned.

"We do," Kaylee answered.

River added, "Standard XL 8-15 disposal chute, manufactured currently by both the Dritz Company of Osiris and the Blackwell Company of Chute's Fall. Highest power level maximum drag seventeen-aught-eight."

Nir was nodding as River spoke. "Sounds as though it would be acceptable for our purposes."

"It's right over there," Kaylee said, pointing to a small hinged door on the side of the cargo bay.

Nir crossed to the disposal chute and opened it, revealing a small compartment, also hinged.

"Just set the… whatever it is in there and close th' door. The system'll take care o' the rest," Kaylee said.

Nir placed the fabric-wrapped object into the disposal chute compartment and shut the door. There was a hiss, then a _clank_ as the opposite door opened, and when Nir reopened the compartment, the biological weapon was gone. The chute was empty. "Much thanks for your assistance, Miss Frye."

"Not a problem," Kaylee said.

"We best be gettin' back t' bed," Mal said, watching Nir. She had changed positions so she was leaning against the wall of the ship, and she looked completely exhausted. "Have ya traveled far, Nir?"

"Far enough, Captain Reynolds," Nir replied, closing her eyes. "And my time on _Serenity_ has not been completely uneventful."

"Yer welcome t' bunk up with River," Mal said. "But we've all got t' get some sleep a'fore morning; there's work t' be done."

"Sounds like an acceptable plan," Nir agreed. "Thank you for your hospitality, Captain Reynolds."

"River, show Nir t' yer bunk," Mal requested. "The rest of us, let's get back t' bed."

"What about Catie?" Inara asked.

"Dr. Tam can take her to the infirmary or to her room, so long as he eventually removes the fluid from those blisters and treats the wounds with anhydride brinsomill," Nir said, not opening her eyes. "She is out of danger now, thanks to Dr. Tam's quick work."

"Sleep now," River said. She crossed the cargo bay and took Nir's arm. "Come sleep Little-Who-is-Not."

Nir smiled, opening her eyes. "That is not the first time I have been called by that name."

"She knows," River said knowingly, and led her second new friend in two days from the cargo bay.


	11. Changes in Plans

NirSighted Chapter Eleven: Changes in Plans

Nir awoke a few hours later with the sensation of not knowing where she was. Then it came back to her – _Serenity_. The bunk was empty; River must have left some time before. Nir got up and put on her pack and shoes, then headed for the galley.

Kaylee was dishing up bowls of oatmeal. Mal was at the head of the table with a large scroll unrolled in front of him. Every now and then, he made a mark on it with a silver marker. A bowl of oatmeal sat untouched in front of him, a spoon set in it.

Dr. Burk was on Mal's right. Like Mal, he had a bowl of oatmeal in front of him. A spoon was in his right hand, full of oatmeal, raised halfway to his mouth. In his right hand, obviously preventing him from eating, was a heavy scientific text. His mouth was open, as though to receive the food, but his eyes were obviously perplexed, fixed on the book.

Zoë and Wash were seated on Mal's left. Both were eating their oatmeal, and conversing with Simon and Inara, who sat across from them.

Catie and River were at the far end of the table. The blind Reader had her eyes closed and was tilting her head left-to-right, eyelids flickering as though she was receiving a message. Catie was eating out of the one bowl set in front of them, her spoon resting in her left, unhurt hand. Her right hand, which had come in contact with the biological agent, was heavily bandaged in crisp white gauze.

Nir took a seat next to Catie. "Good morning," she said.

"Mornin', Nir," Mal said from the opposite end of the table, looking up from the scroll. "Sleep well?"

"Yes, thank you for asking," Nir replied. "Where is Sergeant Flavez?"

"She and Jayne were on the bridge last I knew, wavin' her parents," Wash replied after swallowing. "They should be here momentarily."

"Ya need Jimena fer somethin', Nir?" Mal asked.

"I am only inquiring as to her position," Nir answered as Kaylee passed her a bowl of oatmeal. "Thank you, Miss Frye."

"We should be arrivin' on Irving-Keene tomorrow at the latest," Mal informed Nir.

"That sounds fine," Nir said in response. "What about the stop you'll need to make at Battleboury?"

Mal looked at the girl with surprise. "What stop at Battleboury? We ain't s'posed t' stop there at all."

Nir nodded grimly. "Well, you're going to need to."

"Engine troubles?" Kaylee asked, sitting down next to Simon with her own bowl of breakfast.

"No, it is no trouble with your ship; she will fly us there mighty fine," Nir responded. "This will be a stop of merely medical concerns."

"Medical? We goin' in ta' some trouble?" Mal questioned. "Doc, anybody hurt or sick?"

"Everyone is fine," Simon replied, glancing at Nir. "Catie's hands are well on their way to being healed, thanks to Nir's advice. And the two things we can't help – River's blindness and Jimena's pregnancy – are fine as well. The baby's heartbeat sounds strong."

"Going to be light soon," River observed from her end of the table.

"See? Nobody's hurt, Nir," Mal said.

"I did not suppose that anyone was hurt," Nir informed them. "This stop will be of two points of interest to you – it is a medical stop, of interest to Dr. Tam, and a rescue mission, of interest to all of you."

"Rescue? Who're we rescuin'?" Mal demanded, the scroll in front of him forgotten.

Nir gave them a warm smile. "Your friends from _Stoïque_ will be delighted to see you, I am sure of it."

"Them again?" Zoë asked. "Thought we helped them for good at Snozlund. Didn't think we'd ever see them again."

"Well, you were incorrect," Nir replied. "Like you, they are on their way to Irving-Keene, but unlike you, they are not going to make it without some serious assistance. I would advise you not to pass up on this opportunity to give them aid."

"And what if we do?" Mal asked. "What if we blow straight by Battleboury at full blast?"

Nir shrugged and removed her tablet from her pack. Setting it flat on the table, she pressed her palm into it, then slid it down the table to Mal, Inara, and Zoë. They leaned in to see what was on the tablet's shiny surface.

For a moment, none of them could make sense of the scrolling patterns there. Then Inara said, "Is this a Vander Graff Supposition?"

Nir nodded. "Well done, Companion Serra."

"Oh," Inara said. "She's right, Mal, we have to help them."

Mal groaned. "This ain't some stupid spiritual nonsense, is it? I ain't gonna stop at Battleboury just because God told me to. Ain't got much stock in Him nowadays anyway."

Inara looked as though she was going to whack Mal over the head with Nir's tablet. Regaining her Companion-taught composure, she said, "A Vander Graff Supposition details estimated damage for uncontrolled situations."

"So? What's this haveta do with us helpin' or not helpin' them at Battleboury?" Mal questioned.

"The Supposition shows your ship if and, hopefully, _when_ we help the crew of _Stoïque_ at Battleboury," Nir informed him. "And that…" There was a click, and another set of patterns appeared. "… details what will happen if we do not."

Mal looked at it. "'Nara, you wanna translate fer us?"

Inara picked up the tablet. "I was never really very good at reading these," she said, "but it doesn't look good."

"It is not," Nir added.

Mal put a hand to his forehead. "So we don't help them, we're screwed over. If we_ do_ help them, we waste three days."

"Oh, no, Captain Reynolds," Nir said, a smile growing across her face.

"What? Was I wrong in m' calculations? Ask li'l Albatross, she'll tell ya if I was."

"You said it would be a waste," Nir reminded him, smiling. "The _last_ thing this will be is a waste of time."


	12. Make Me An Offer

NirSighted Chapter Twelve: Make Me An Offer

Battleboury was larger than St. Florin's, but not by much. It would never been known as the pinnacle of scientific research the way St. Florin's was, but it had several industries to its credit, namely soap and paper. It was also the used-book hotbed of the black. If you needed a book, you were more likely to find more copies of it on Battleboury than anywhere else.

Wash set _Serenity_ down at the Full Metal Docks on Battleboury's largest settlement, Breakstaff. None of the crew was surprised to see _Stoïque_ in a dock slot only three over. "Guess we should go figure out what's goin' wrong," Mal said, looking out over the docks.

"Prob'ly should, sir," Zoë agreed.

Mal sighed. "Are we takin' the girl?"

"What girl? We've got too many o' them," Zoë said.

"Nir."

"We kin take her, absolutely, sir," Zoë replied.

"Let's go."

The hatch to _Stoïque_ was open and Antony and Kolya, the ship's emissaries, were standing on the dock, talking to two passers-by. At last the two men moved on and Antony noticed Mal, Zoë, Jayne, and Nir. "Captain Reynolds," he said in his accented voice. "What brings you here?"

"I ain't rightly sure," Mal replied, looking at Nir. "Nir, you wanna explain?"

"Hello, Mr. Brightman, Mr. Anson," Nir said.

"Do we know you?" Kolya asked.

"No, you do not," Nir replied. "My name is Niriel Shatter-Glass, but you may call me Nir. Where are Companion Sage and Ms. Trickey?"

"If you know us, why do you not know them?" Antony asked suspiciously.

"We're here to help you," Nir informed him sharply. "If you decline to help us, you will be stuck here longer."

Kolya glared at Antony. At last, Antony said, "Emilia is onboard the ship. Carole went into town. She should be back shortly."

"It would be of the most kindness for you to lead me to Companion Sage," Nir said, ever polite.

"Where's Doc Rupert?" Zoë asked. No one had mentioned him yet.

Everyone was quiet for a moment. Then Kolya replied softly, "Doctor Pawtucket passed away a week ago."

"I'm so sorry," Zoë said, giving Kolya a pat on the shoulder.

"He lived a good life," Antony said, patting Kolya's other shoulder. "Sometimes it is just difficult for us to understand."

"Death always is," Nir agreed. Then she changed topics. "You mentioned that Ms. Trickey was in town. Would she happen to be in the company of a Mr. Parmin?"

Antony looked at Nir as though she had three heads. "I'm not sure," he replied, but he didn't seem to be telling the truth.

Nir nodded and removed a meter from her bag. She swung it over Kolya and Antony, at the space around their waists, then turned it towards the settlement of Battleboury. "Thank you. I will find her."

"I thought you wanted to speak with Emilia," Kolya said, obviously confused.

"I do, but there is a time and place for everything. I shall return shortly. Captain Reynolds, Mrs. Washburne, Mr. Cobb, please come with me," Nir requested.

"Where're we goin'?" Mal asked.

"We are going to correct a large mistake that will happen unless we have a hand in stopping it," Nir replied.

"Grenades? We need grenades?" Jayne questioned hopefully.

"Your current arsenal should prove sufficient," Nir answered. "This way; let's go."

She led them into Breakstaff, the meter swinging left then right as Nir inspected every building. At last she stopped, almost suddenly, in front of a two-story green building. It was sandwiched between a used-book store on the left and a food co-op on the right. "Ms. Trickey is here," she informed Mal.

"Well, what're we waitin' fer?" Mal wanted to know.

"Nothing, I suppose," Nir replied. She tucked away her meter and strode boldly to the door of the building. Pulling it open, she disappeared inside the building.


	13. The Wrong Kind of Legacy

NirSighted Chapter Thirteen: The Wrong Kind of Legacy

"Guess we haveta follow her," Jayne said begrudgingly.

"Might be a good idea," Zoë agreed.

The inside of the building was cool and dark. Nir was nowhere to be seen. At the far side of the wide, open foyer was another door. It was just closing as Mal, Jayne, and Zoë stepped through the front door. Mal strode towards it and pulled it open.

The room beyond the second door was dark as well, but there were a few differences. For one, the foyer had been silent save for their breathing; this room was full of quiet chattering coming in from all directions and a strange hissing noise. The foyer had been almost completely dark except for a single light over the door; this room was completely dark.

"Where d'ya think we are?" Zoë murmured quietly. "Think there's gonna be trouble?"

Before either Mal or Jayne could answer, there was a swell of music that sounded as though it was being played by a full orchestra. Then a spotlight came up, swinging into perspective in front of them. As the light hit a red velvet curtain, Mal noticed Nir standing to the side of the stage. There was a small green light in front of her, and it moved left-to-right. The girl was obviously scanning for something; what, Mal didn't know.

The curtains parted and the music came to an almost-halt, although the melody was still carried on by a lone clarinet and what sounded like two string bass. The spotlight widened and Mal could see that it was on a stage. A stage that was empty.

Suddenly a man leapt out of the wings. He was maybe twenty or twenty-five, with coffee-with-cream skin and dark eyes. He was wearing the uniform of the Bright Force. And he began to sing in a foreign language.

"Sir, what do you think this is?" Zoë asked quietly.

"I think it's a gorram puppet-show," Jayne muttered, even though she hadn't been asking him.

Mal was transfixed by the man onstage. He was trying to figure out where he had seen the man before. It was almost impossible to divine, as Mal had never been to Battleboury before. But _gorram_ it, the man looked so familiar.

Then it hit Mal.

"Book?"

There was a bit of ruffling of papers and Nir appeared in front of them.

"What the hell is this?" Mal demanded of her.

Nir didn't answer; she simply pointed her handheld device at the stage and pressed a button. The man – who had been joined by two women in red and white dirndls – began to sing in English. "… Fought in the War Between the Worlds / Fought for what's right / I serve for God / I serve for life!"

"Sweet Mother Mary and all Her Tea-Drinking Uncles," Jayne said, his mouth dropping open.

"It's a gorram musical," Mal said in horror.

"It's a musical about _Book_," Zoë corrected, her own face showing an expression of awe similar to that of Jayne and Mal.

Nir let them watch in silence for awhile. The man and the two women danced around the stage and sang, glorifying Shepherd Book's service in the Bright Force. Then she said, "This next part should be of particular interest to you, Captain Reynolds."

A woman was led onstage. She was young and very, _very_ pregnant. Her hair was shoulder-length, red, and curly. She was sobbing; Mal couldn't tell whether it was part of the acting or genuine. Then he recognized her, too. "Carole?" he asked, looking to Nir for confirmation. "Carole Trickey of _Stoïque?"_

"You are correct, Captain Reynolds," Nir said.

"She ain't really pregnant, is she?"

"She very much is. Due almost the same time as Sergeant Flavez."

"What's she doin' here, then?" Zoë asked.

Nir nodded her chin towards the stage as though telling them to watch.

The young man sang out, "It was early in my life that we met / At first I thought you were heaven-sent / Then I learned your true nature / And realized I was in danger!"

Carole managed to choke out between sobs, "I am your true love / I always have been, always will be / It hurts to know / That you don't trust me!"

"The lyrics… they aren't exactly theatrical genius, eh?" Mal wondered.

"You bear another man's child / This I cannot forgive / You are lucky I am letting you go / You are lucky I am letting you live," the young man sang. "If my superiors found out / Angry they would be / Go on now, take your leave / And forget about me."

"Wait a tick," Jayne said. "Shepherd Book fathered spawn?"

Nir shook her head. "No."

"Then why are we here?" Mal asked.

Nir gave them another one of her knowing smiles. "You are here to correct the wrong."

"What wrong?"

"The factual untruths of this musical."

"How do you know they're untrue?"

"_I_ do, Captain Reynolds," Nir said. "All I need is for some backup."

And with that, she disappeared silently.

"I hate when she does that," Mal muttered.

He needn't have worried; a moment later, Nir reappeared on the stage in between the man and Carole. At the sight of her, both parties stopped singing (they had been involved in a rather tricky two-part harmony), the orchestra ceased to play, and everyone in the audience, barring Jayne, Mal, and Zoë, gasped. "Attention citizens of Breakstaff!" Nir yelled. "You are buying into lies!"

"Who the hell are _you?"_ the young man demanded.

"That is not important, Mr. Parmin," Nir replied. "At this juncture, I am simply here to correct two wrongs."

"I don't understand," the man said.

"Your name is Kee Alexander Parmin, is it not?" Nir asked. Without waiting for an answer, she barreled on. "You are guilty of writing a musical filled with fallacy, a musical designed to spread lies to the public, a really _atrocious_ musical. And you are also guilty of plotting to abandon a woman with child, which, if I remember correctly, is a crime punishable here in Breakstaff by up to seven years in prison."

She pointed at Carole, who had stopped crying and was regarding Nir as somewhat of a guardian angel. "That woman is carrying your child, Kee Alexander Parmin," Nir informed him. "And you are planning to desert her the first chance you get."

"Whoa, whoa, wait," Kee said. "_My_ child? That isn't my child."

Nir gave him a look that seemed to indicate that she could prove the child's parentage with a snap of her fingers. He reconsidered. "All right, all right, maybe it _is_ my child. But why do you care?"

"I care because you are going to abandon this sweet woman," Nir snapped at him. "But also because you are desecrating the memory of Shepherd Book."

"He was just a stupid Shepherd," Kee said, shaking his head.

"Was he?" Nir asked, turning to the crowd. "_Was he?"_ she repeated, louder. "Is there anyone here who can testify to the memory of Shepherd Book, tell us that he was _not_ the father of an illegitimate child and _not_ a captain of the Bright Force?"

Mal couldn't tell, the stage was far away from him, but she might have been glaring at him. A swift elbow in the gut from Zoë confirmed it. He was going to have to speak up. "Uhh, Shepherd Book was a good man!"

"The best that ever lived!" Jayne confirmed.

"He was honest!" Zoë agreed, adding her support to their voices.

"He was simple and committed to his God!" Mal said, his voice growing stronger.

"He made a mean protein scramble!"

"He protected the innocent!"

"He took shots fer me 'n mine!"

"He… uh…" Zoë's voice trailed off, but Jayne was there to cover: "He firmly believed sex was okay!"

Mal didn't even hesitate; he simultaneously whacked Jayne on the back of the head and said, "He was fair and kind!"

By now the audience's murmurings had grown to a dull roar and it was getting hard to hear Mal, Jayne, and Zoë over the noise. Onstage, Nir was raising her arms and struggling to say something. No one could be heard. Nir reached into her pack, drew another gadget out, and thrust her arm up at the ceiling.

There was a bright flash of light and a loud _boom!_ Everyone either screamed or ducked; many people did both. When the light was gone, Nir said sternly, "_Now listen to me_. You have all been duped by Mr. Parmin. Are you going to allow him to continue this farce?"

There was silence; everyone was obviously afraid of Nir.

"I _said_, are you going to allow him to continue this farce?" Nir demanded, louder.

"No!" someone in the back shouted out. "No way!"

"Right on!" someone else called out.

"The Shepherd was a good man!" a third person yelled.

"Are you going to allow Mr. Parmin to remain in your settlement?" Nir questioned, a smile on her face, obviously enjoying this.

"No way!"

"Run him outa town!"

"Hang him where he sleeps!"

"Let's go!" a fairly courageous person in the front row yelled, and five or six men began to race for the stage. Kee, obviously sensing that the jig was up, looked left-then-right, trying to find a place to hide.

It was no good. Stage hands began to swarm in from the wings, and the group of men had reached the stage. They surrounded Kee and began to grab him bodily. As soon as Nir had seen that the situation was under control, she stuffed her loud-noise-bright-light device into her pack and ran over to Carole, grabbing the pilot's arm. Mal saw Nir's lips move, and then she and Carole both disappeared.

"Hey, a tussle!" Jayne said, clearly enamored with the fight.

"Sorry, Mr. Cobb, not today," Nir said as she and Carole appeared right in front of him.

"Holy Goose! Don't do that, you'll kill a feller!" Jayne declared.

"Let's go!" Nir yelled over the commotion in the auditorium, and began to pull Carole towards the exit door. Mal, Jayne, and Zoë followed suit.

The main street of Breakstaff seemed uncannily bright as they exited the theater. "Mr. Cobb, prepare to give cover fire if necessary!" Nir barked.

"Yeah!" Jayne said excitedly, drawing his weapons.

He didn't need them; the group arrived back at the docks safely within the space of ten minutes. Antony and Kolya watched their approach with open mouths. "I believe we underestimated your strength," Antony said, but it wasn't clear whether he was speaking to Nir or to Carole.

"You will not have to worry about Mr. Parmin any longer," Nir said triumphantly, smiling at Carole.

Carole dragged a hand across her face, smearing her tears. "Thank you," she managed to say.

"How did you know…?" Mal began.

"Captain Reynolds, I will never give you cause to doubt me," Nir replied. "If I do, you have my permission to shoot me on sight."

"Me first," Jayne said.

"All right, Mr. Cobb," Nir said with a patronizing smile. She turned back to Antony and Kolya. "I will speak with Companion Sage now." To Mal, she said, "You may want to go and fetch Dr. Tam; his services will be needed."

"Nobody's hurt," Antony said guardedly.

"I am well aware of that. Go and fetch Dr. Tam."

"How… how did you know?" Kolya asked.

"Pregnancies, like bad things, come in threes," Nir replied with a smile.

"You mean t' say Companion Sage is…?" Zoë wondered.

"I mean to say."


	14. Put It Back Together

NirSighed Chapter Fourteen: Put It Back Together

"Everything looks to be all right," Simon said for the third time as he moved the ultrasound wand over the third stomach that day.

"Are you sure?" Emilia Sage asked, peering over at the screen. "Looks like weather radar to me."

Simon gave her a smile, then pointed with his free, gloved hand to the screen. "See that right there? Those are your baby's feet."

"Ohh," Emilia said. "I guess they do look like feet. Do you know if it's a boy or girl?"

"We can check if you would like," Simon responded. "Are you sure you want to do that?"

Emilia hesitated for a moment, then said, "No. Never mind. It will be a surprise."

"Good!" Carole said from the door. She, like Jimena and Emilia, had chosen not to discover her baby's sex. "We're all in for a surprise."

Kaylee appeared behind Carole. "Carole? If you're all done, we need t' talk about the engine."

"Oh, right," Carole said. "Yeah, let's go take care of that."

"Be careful," Simon cautioned them, but it wasn't clear who he was speaking to.

"We will be," Kaylee assured him, and she led Carole away from _Stoïque's_ infirmary. "So, what seems t' be the trouble with the engine?"

"It just refuses to turn," Carole replied. "We've been stuck here two weeks, nothing we do to it seems to fix it. But we're desperate to get to Irving-Keene before our deadline."

"Is it a flexible deadline?" Kaylee asked as she hauled the door to the engine room open.

"It was, two weeks ago," Carole answered. "It isn't anymore."

"What's yer cargo?" Kaylee questioned, peering in at the engine.

"Ohh, you misunderstood me, Kaylee," Carole said with a gentle smile. "We're not delivering anything… well, no, that's incorrect as well. We have to get to Irving-Keene before the babies come."

"Oh. Well, that complicates things," Kaylee said, then disappeared under the engine. A moment later, she said, "I see yer problem."

"Is it fixable?"

"Not here," Kaylee answered. "We're gonna haveta tow you if you're gonna to make it, and you know as well as I do that that's never a good solution for the situation."

"Are you sure it's the only way?" Carole asked.

Kaylee reappeared from under the engine. "Yes. It is the only way if yer desperate t' get t' Irving-Keene before the babies come."

Carole sighed. "Is it the major heat transformer?"

"Yes, that's shot, but I'd prob'ly wager that yer major, most pressin' problem right now is the thrusters. They're blown all t' hell, and I know they don't have anywhere to fix that on Breakstaff." Kaylee stood up and wiped her greasy hands on her coveralls. "You'd better tell ever' body t' get on over t' _Serenity_; we'll have t' carry the extra bodies since there's no way yer ship can carry the tow weight now. Get what ya need and we'll rig yer ship fer towin'."

It took forty minutes and the combined efforts of Kaylee, Nir, and Jayne to ready _Stoïque_ for towing. Nir seemed capable with machinery, but Jayne had to be constantly supervised. "You'd think ya hadn't lived on a ship a'fore," Kaylee grumbled as she redid one of the catches. "Ya do this wrong, the ship goes flyin' off in ta the black and they haveta live with us." To Nir, she said, "That's right, use the circular wrench. That cable needs to be as tight as you can make it."

"Understandable, Miss Frye," Nir said, leaning over the thick cable connecting _Stoïque_ to _Serenity_. With a click of the circular wrench, the cable was securely latched into place. "I do hope this is not the _only_ thing connecting these two ships."

"Kin I go have some lunch?" Jayne demanded from his corner, where he was struggling with bolts.

"Hang on, we're almost done here," Kaylee said to Jayne, who was still attempting to grasp the bolts with his stripping wrench. "Nir, is the cable tight?"

"Tight as it is ever going to be," Nir replied with a final tug on the circular wrench. "How long before the BluePac is set off?"

Kaylee hollered up towards _Serenity_'s open hatch, "Wash! How long til ya detonate the BluePac?"

Wash's voice came back, tinny and far away: "Twenty minutes! Antony and Kolya went back for some food supplies!"

"All done," Jayne grunted.

Kaylee checked over the bolts Jayne had been responsible for securing. "Yer bolts are too loose. _Stoïque's _gonna fly off in ta the black if'n we don't do this right."

"Well then, YOU do it," Jayne said crossly, dropping the stripping wrench.

Kaylee obligingly picked it up and set to work correcting Jayne's bad work.

Twenty minutes later, Wash and Zoë came out from Serenity with the BluePac. It was the size of a large footlocker, and resembled a large, blue, extremely dense pillow with a short tube connected to one corner. Wash set the BluePac and an additional, smaller box down in front of Kaylee. "Yer BluePac, milady."

"Thank ya kindly, Wash," Kaylee said. "We'll have her up 'n runnin' in a minute here."

She knelt in front of the BluePac and removed a small, square, black box from one of her coverall pockets. The box had a hinged lid, kept closed with a small painted-black catch, and in the center of the lid was a round red button. Kaylee flipped open the catch to reveal a handful of shiny gold three-pronged plugs, one prong facing away from her and two facing towards her. From the other box Wash had brought, she removed a length of clear tubing. Quickly she jammed the single-prong end of the plug into the tube attached to the BluePac. Then she connected the additional tubing to the other two prongs of the gold plug, forming a circle of tubing around the outside of the BluePac.

"What's that do fer us?" Jayne asked as he watched Kaylee fiddle with the tubing and plugs.

"It keeps the air pressure constant in the BluePac while it surrounds the other ship so the air pressure gyros don't think they're being overwhelmed and decide to explode on us," Kaylee explained. "Any additional pressure that needs t' be distributed will come out through this circuit and be redistributed throughout the ship. If we _don't _do this, it's more likely that the pressure gyros will be too caught-up in trying t' redistribute the air and they'll forget to cool the engines, the ship will explode, and because we'll be connected t' them, we'd be screwed too."

"Not a happy little circuit," Wash remarked.

"No, but this should hold 'til we kin get t' Irving-Keene," Kaylee said.

"And if it doesn't?" Zoë asked.

"Then we'll have t' suit up 'n come out here 'n fix it. That ain't the first plan, o' course, but it'll do in a pinch," Kaylee replied.

"You wanna put some spray-hold on that circuit?" Jayne asked, looking suspiciously at Kaylee's mess of tubing.

"Spray-hold disintegrates in the black," Wash reminded Jayne.

"Oh, yeah."

"D' we have any sticky-hold?" Kaylee wondered. "That might hold the circuit."

"Brought some fer the occasion," Wash said, and dipped into a pocket on his vest, coming out with a wad of gray-white sticky-hold, which he passed over to Kaylee. "This enough?"

"Should work." Kaylee set about smearing sticky-hold on the tubing circuits, then looked over at the cable connecting the two ships. "Ya think we should put some on there too?""

"Might be a good idea," Nir said, "even though that cable is as tight as it's ever going to be."

"It is awful tight," Kaylee agreed. "I guess that's all we can do then."

They headed back into _Serenity_, Kaylee giving the BluePac and its surrounding circuits one final glance before saying, "'Kay, Wash, let 'er go."

The pilot obligingly took the small black box from her and mashed the red button in the center of it. There was a quiet whirr and an almost imperceptible beep, and then the BluePac began to expand, a laser sight swinging about the outside of _Stoïque_. Once the laser sight had determined the size and weight of the ship, the laser-driven grid began to appear on _Stoïque'_s hull. The blue, tarp-like material began to expand over the ship, until _Stoïque _was completely covered in a safety laser grid and blue tarp. Kaylee knelt near the cable's end and gave it a tug. "Seems fine," she said. "Cap'n ready t' go?"

"Let's go find out," Nir suggested, and led the way into the galley.


	15. We Interrupt This Broadcast

NirSighted Chapter Fifteen: We Interrupt This Broadcast

The crew of _Stoïque_ was gathered around the table. Mal sat at the far end, and Catie and River occupied the opposite end. No one looked particularly happy besides Catie and River, who were playing six-circle.

"All done?" Mal asked as they came in.

"All done," Kaylee agreed. "Should be ready fer takeoff any time now."

"Music t' my ears," Wash said, and headed on through the galley to the bridge. "Irving-Keene, Cap'n my Cap'n?" he called out behind him.

"Take us up 'n out, Wash," Mal requested.

Nir took a seat next to Emilia. "Companion Sage, I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about why you and your crew chanced to land at Breakstaff."

"What do you mean?" Emilia asked, looking over at the little-girl-sized agent. "And what difference does it make to you?"

"I apologize for not introducing myself," Nir replied. "My name is Niriel Shatter-Glass; I am onboard _Serenity_ to prevent a catastrophe of epic proportions."

"Oh, now it's a catastrophe," Mal muttered, flinging up his hands.

"What does that have to do with me and mine?" Emilia asked coolly.

"We picked you up for a reason," Nir said cryptically. "It would help me to know a little bit about your reasoning for staying at Breakstaff for so long."

"Might as well tell 'er, Miss Emilia," Carole said from the other side of the table.

Emilia sighed. "All right, all right. We landed at Breakstaff a little more than three weeks ago, intending to pick up Dr. Pawtucket's sister, Bridget."

"What was the reasoning behind that?" Nir questioned.

"Dr. Pawtucket at that time was very ill," Emilia said. "His sister was also a doctor, and he felt that she could treat him."

"But Bridget doesn't live in Breakstaff, does she?"

"No, she didn't," Emilia answered. "She lived in Parliament Village, which was an hour's ride from Breakstaff. Antony and Kolya volunteered to go out to Parliament Village on the mule to collect Bridget."

"What happened when they got there?" Nir asked gently.

"No one was there," Antony answered for Emilia. "We got there and the entire village was gone."

"How many people lived in Parliament Village at that time?" Nir questioned.

"Records said upwards of fifty, and the number of buildings and outposts seemed to support that," Antony replied. "And there was no one there. Kolya and I stayed for about an hour, trying to find some indication as to what had happened to those people."

"And what did you find?"

"Nothing," Kolya answered, taking over for Antony.

"But you _did_ find Ms. Pawtucket's computer," Nir said.

"Yes, we did," Kolya said. "We brought it back here to _Stoïque_, because neither Antony nor I could crack the encryption necessary to enter it."

"I will make short work of that," Nir informed him. "What was your hypothesis as to what had happened to Bridget and the rest of the citizens of Parliament Village?"

"I'm not even sure," Kolya replied.

"Were there any signs of violence?"

"None that we could see," Antony said, shaking his head. "No bombshells, no bullet holes."

"I have only one more question to do with Parliament Village," Nir informed him. "What did it smell like when you got there? Answer the truth now."

"What did it _smell_ like?" Antony repeated, as though he couldn't believe Nir had asked such a question.

"Yes. What did it smell like? What was the prevailing scent?"

Antony closed his eyes to think. Kolya, who had been eating some scrambled protein, put his fork on the table as he leaned forward thoughtfully. At last Kolya said, "It smelled like cinnamon."

"Cinnamon. Are you sure?"

Kolya nodded, and Antony said, "Yes. Cinnamon."

"Thank you very much," Nir said to the two emissaries. She turned back to Emilia. "All right, let us continue with the record of your time at Breakstaff. When did you realize that Dr. Pawtucket's condition was not going to get any better?"

"Musta been five or six days after we landed," Carole replied.

"And what did you do at that time?"

"We were still waiting for his sister to show up," Emilia answered honestly. "We all thought she would come."

"But she didn't," Nir said. "So how did you treat Dr. Pawtucket?"

Emilia looked across the table to Carole, who said, "We did just as Dr. Pawtucket asked us to, gave him the medicines he thought would help. But he just kept gettin' weaker 'n weaker… we tried t' feed him, tried t' help him, honest we did."

"I believe you, Carole," Nir said, leaning over to pat Carole's hand. "Dr. Pawtucket's death was most certainly not your fault. Now, what happened after Dr. Pawtucket's death?"

"Antony 'n Kolya went down t' th' Medical Commissioner's office 'n asked fer a slip t' bury Dr. Pawtucket in Breakstaff," Carole replied.

"And was permission granted?"

"Yeah, they gave us a slip t' bury him in The Garden of Eternal Rest," Carole said.

"We dressed him in his best suit and bought him a fine coffin," Emilia added. "A few young men from the Medical Commissioner's office came out and helped Antony and Kolya dig the plot. It was quite a lovely service."

"And after Dr. Pawtucket was buried, why did you not immediately leave Breakstaff?" Nir wanted to know. "What was keeping you here?"

"It was shortly after Dr. Pawtucket's funeral that Carole and Antony discovered a fatal flaw with the engine," Emilia said. To Kaylee, she said, "You've seen the engine, is it fixable?"

"With time, patience, and some parts ya don't have yet," Kaylee answered. "Once we get t' Irving-Keene, we'll get things taken care o' for ya."

"After discovering this 'fatal flaw,' what did you do?" Nir asked.

"We… sat. It was all we could do."

"Did you attempt to pick up any passengers?"

"No, we knew that we would either make it to Irving-Keene or our business would be completed there at Breakstaff, and we were not really equipped to take on more passengers."

There was a rumble and then a sweep of movement as Wash lifted off. His voice came crisply over the intercom: "Attention ever' body, we're headed fer Irving-Keene; our estimated time o' arrival is… three days from now."

Nir turned back to Emilia and continued, "When did Mr. Parmin become, as we shall say, a wrench caught in the works?"

Emilia glanced over at Carole. _Stoïque's_ pilot said, "Kee has been a part o' my life since I was little. I was from Breakstaff originally. We'd been childhood sweethearts."

"When did Mr. Parmin recruit you for his sick little musical?" Nir demanded.

Carole looked over at Emilia. "Uhh… must 'a been couple 'a weeks after we'd landed here. He said if I didn't play in his show, he'd tell m' mother that I'd been foolin' 'round with some Core type."

"Is that true?"

"Uhh, Miss Shatter-Glass, don't know if that's suitable fer the table," Carole said a bit nervously, looking around at those gathered around the table.

"I am sure that there will be nothing in your conversation that they have not all heard before," Nir replied tartly.

"Uh, well then," Carole began, stumbling a little over the words. "Naw, never fooled 'round with Core types. I'm just a down-home girl m' self, anyway."

"So the child _does_ belong to Mr. Parmin?"

Carole flushed. Nir rolled her eyes, impatient. "I am not asking whether or not the child will actually become his in the legal sense," she snapped at Carole. "I just want to know if it's his in the genetic sense."

"Uh, yeah, it's his."

"Was that so hard?" Nir wanted to know. "Now, why didn't you report him to the Breakstaff authorities for possible abandonment of woman with child? You know as well as the rest of us do that it's a punishable offense in Breakstaff and, if I'm correct, all of Battleboury."

"I know," Carole said lamely. "But Kee… I loved him."

"Love should not be taken into account when laws are at stake," Nir said firmly. "Thank you for all of your assistance."

"Nir?" Mal said. "Things gonna be all right fer me 'n mine now that we stopped at Battleboury?"

"I am promising nothing," Nir replied. "The discovery of the massacre at Parliament Village throws a new variable into the equation."

"Massacre?" Mal questioned. "They said ever' body was just gone."

"And they are all most certainly dead, Captain Reynolds," Nir shot back. "Dead from an NPBAP-D."

"That ball thing ya had earlier? That killed 'em?"

"Most likely," Nir replied.

"Are we safe here?" Zoë wanted to know.

"You are as safe as I can make you," Nir answered, and it was clear that she didn't want to give that answer. "I only wish you were safer."

"If you don't mind me askin'," Zoë said, "why send such a little 'un t' protect us?"

"She ain't so little, Zo," Mal reminded her. To Nir, he said, "How d'ya know it was one o' those ball things?"

"The best clue I have is Kolya and Antony's recollection of the scent they remembered at Parliament Village – cinnamon. NPBAP-Ds, when used on a grand scale, leave a lingering scent of cinnamon. The scent, which will disperse within forty-eight hours, is the only remaining trace of what happened to those poor people."

"Yer sayin' that if ya hadn't thrown that ball thing out in 'ta the black, we'd all be disappeared and smellin' o' cinnamon?" Mal asked.

"That is correct, Captain Reynolds. Fortunately for all of us, that hasn't happened." Nir closed her eyes. She was getting tired again.

"Simon," River said from the end of the table, where she was winning at six-circle, "the bad man is going to be waiting for us."

"What bad man, mei-mei?" Simon asked.

"The one…" River's voice trailed off. Suddenly, her hands went limp and the six-circle pieces began to scatter across the table. Her head dropped back, her body became floppy, and she slipped from her chair, unconscious. The second she hit the floor, Catie began to babble incoherently, her hands flicking at her ears.

Simon hurriedly got out of his seat and went over to River, taking her wrist in his hand. "River? Mei-mei? Can you hear me?"

Nir, meanwhile, had opened her eyes, gotten out of her seat and was heading for Catie. "Catie, listen to me," she said, holding her hands out in front of her. "Catie."

"What's goin' on?" Kaylee wanted to know.

"Psychic overload," Nir replied without looking at her, her little-girl green eyes still focused on Catie, who was lolling her head around and babbling nonsense phrases. "I believe that the upcoming catastrophe will affect these two profoundly."

"This catastrophe ya keep talkin' 'bout, it ever gonna hit us?" Mal asked.

"It may be closer than you'd like," Nir replied. She had reached Catie and was now holding both of Catie's hands in her own. "Doctor Tam, my recommendation at this point is to give your sister seventy-five milliliters of barthic-bromide. Immediately."

"Seventy-five milliliters?" Simon repeated, almost in horror. "Do you know how much…?"

"I am well aware of the great size of the dosage," Nir replied, calmly. "A lower dose will work the same but much more slowly, and, judging from Miss Tam's pulse, she doesn't have time for you to wait. She is merely asleep at this juncture, but it could progress to a comatose state rather rapidly."

"Seventy-five milliliters it is," Simon said, and left hurriedly.

"What's goin' on here, Nir?" Mal asked, his eyes concerned.

"I believe that Catie and River are experiencing psychic backlash from the NPBAP-D," Nir replied calmly.

"What's gonna happen?" Kaylee asked nervously.

"Hopefully Dr. Tam can provide his sister with the barthic-bromide quickly, and Miss Tam will be fine," Nir said. "I would suppose that the noise in her head is something great at present."

"Why didn't Catie collapse?" Zoë asked, looking at the younger girl, whose head was still lolling about as she mumbled incoherently.

"I am not quite certain," Nir answered. "It is possible that because of Catie's earlier treatment on her hands, she developed a bit of an antibody against whatever psychic backlash was coming for them both."

"So, this weapon… it's biological, but it works on Readers' brain-pans too?" Mal questioned.

"The biological weapon will kill off everyone not protected by a vaccination," Nir replied quickly. "If there is such a person around – vaccinations against these devices are rare and costly and therefore not highly distributed – it will wait until they are receiving zeta waves in the greatest amount, which for Readers, happens to be when they are receiving data."

"Why didn't _you_ collapse?" Mal inquired.

"Captain Reynolds, do you really think my agency would let me leave their premises on a search to eradicate these devices without such a vaccination?" Nir said dryly.

Simon returned and jabbed the syringe as neatly as possible into the vein at River's left elbow. "Mei-mei, listen to me. Wake up, you hear me?"

River's eyes opened and she looked up at him with her empty eyes.

"Wow," Simon said. "That was fast."

"Simon, the bad man is already here," River said, attempting to sit up. She found it a difficult process, and the room seemed to spin around her.

Simon, seeing his sister's face go white, leaned forward to grab her by the shoulders before she passed out. "How do you feel?" he asked.

"Spinny," River replied weakly, lowering her head back to the floor. The pounding in her head increased, as though a horse's hooves were stomping on her brain-pan.

Mal had gotten up from the table and was heading into the bridge. "Wash!" he called. "How long to Irving-Keene?"

"I told you, three days!" Wash hollered back. "It hasn't changed!"

Mal turned back towards the galley. "These passengers got rooms?" he asked Zoë.

"Yes, sir, Emilia's staying with Inara, Carole is bunking next to Dr. Burk, and Kolya and Antony are down the hall."

"Good," Mal said. "Let's say we bunk up fer the night, let these things sort themselves out, we'll be closer t' Irving-Keene in the mornin'. Nir, you kin sleep with River again."

"What else needs to be done?" Simon asked, looking at Nir.

"For your sister? Nothing, except a bit of anthemide in the morning for the pain. She will sleep well," Nir answered promptly. "You can rest easy, Dr. Tam. If anything arises, I will handle it, you can be assured of that."

"Then sleepy-time it is," Mal said. "Zo, you kin keep Wash comp'ny fer awhile if ya want."

"Thank you, sir," Zoë said, and exited to the bridge to watch the stars fly by.


	16. Holy Goose!

NirSighted Chapter Sixteen: Holy Goose!

Three days later, _Serenity_, her crew, and the crew of _Stoïque_ landed at Irving-Keene's busiest port, St. MacLemore. Nothing more had happened in the way of biological or psychically-disturbing weapons, and life aboard the ship had been quiet, if crowded. Simon, who had been doing daily checks on all three of the pregnant women, reported that all three were due to give birth literally any day; Emilia's baby would come first, he predicted, Jimena's two days later, and Carole's a day after that, if all three babies came on schedule. But, as he added quickly, babies kept their own schedules.

"Ya said this was the busiest port?" Mal asked Wash as _Serenity_ landed. "There ain't anybody here."

"Yes, that seems t' be true, sir," Zoë agreed. The streets appeared deserted, and the shops' awnings were still rolled up, which in St. MacLemore meant that they weren't open for business.

"Well, that's odd," Wash said, shutting down _Serenity's_ controls. "Where d' we think ever' body is?"

"We've got three Readers aboard, let's see if one o' them can't tell us," Mal suggested, and strode from the bridge to find River, Catie, or Nir.

He found all three of them playing six-circle at the table with Kaylee. "We've landed," Mal informed Nir, who was the only one to look at him. "And there ain't anybody here."

Nir stood up, her face turning ashen. "You mean there isn't anyone around?"

"That's what I'm sayin'."

Kaylee finished her turn and looked up at the captain. "You think another red ball got 'em?"

"I'm not sure what happened," Nir answered. "I would need to take soil samples, or, at the very least, perform an olfactory test."

"Kin you do that from in here?" Mal asked.

"No. I would need to go out and collect the samples myself."

"We ain't got any protective suits that'll fit ya," Mal said.

"That's fine," Nir replied. "Mr. Cobb can go and do these tests for me."

"Knew there was a reason we kept him 'round," Mal muttered, and went off in search of Jayne.

Twenty minutes later, Jayne handed a small bottle of dirt to Nir, as well as a white cotton swab that he'd waved in the air. The man pulled off his helmet while Nir pulled a wand-like implement from her pack and ran it over the two items. The wand was silent as it went over the dirt, but the swab caused it to produce a high-pitching whirring sound that was instantly irritating. "It is as I figured," Nir said.

"Red ball destruction?" Mal asked, cutting to the chase.

"No, nothing at all," Nir replied. "It is simply the time of the year when the people of St. MacLemore head inland to celebrate a major holiday."

"What holiday?" Jayne asked as he stripped off his protective suit.

"On Earth-That-Was, it was called Hanukkah," Nir answered, tucking the wand back into her pack. "I'm not sure what they call it here at St. MacLemore."

"Where did they all go?" Zoë asked, having come in to hear the proceedings of the test.

"My guess would be Branford-Tobar or Machielli," Nir answered, "since those are the largest settlements, they are those most likely to host large numbers of people from St. MacLemore. Where was Dr. Burk's wife living?"

"He said somewhere out of St. MacLemore, a day's walk," Mal replied. "We kin fly over there if'n that'd be all right."

"That would work," Nir agreed, "but what if Dr. Burk's wife has gone inland to celebrate Hanukkah?"

"'Nara said the wife belonged to some fancy church. Ain't Hanukkah just fer some specific people?"

"No, not anymore," Nir answered. "Hanukkah is now being celebrated by _everyone_ on Irving-Keene."

"Tricky."

"I suppose he could wave her," Zoë suggested. "Then he'd know right where she was."

"Sure," Mal consented. "And then we'll… well, what the hell else d' we haveta do here?"

"Three women need to give birth, Captain Reynolds," Nir reminded him.

"Oh yeah. You an' the Doc gonna be able t' handle it?"

"We should be, if there are no complications," Nir replied.

"I'll go get Dr. Burk t' wave his wife," Zoë said. "I'll let you know when we're ready to leave, sir."

She found Dr. Burk in his bunk, reading a large text. "Have we landed?" he wanted to know once she'd made her presence known.

"Yes, we're on Irving-Keene, but everyone seems t' have disappeared from St. MacLemore," Zoë informed him. "We want ya t' wave yer wife 'n see where she is."

"Where else would she be?" Dr. Burk asked confusedly.

"Nir seems t' think ever' body went t' celebrate… Hanukkah."

"My wife doesn't subscribe to pagan religions," Dr. Burk said tartly. "If she knows what's good for her, she'll be at home with the children."

"I only know what Nir told us," Zoë told him. "We just want ya t' come wave yer wife so's we kin get outa here."

Dr. Burk set down his book and followed her from the bunk and into the bridge, where Wash had the wave screen all ready for his call. The scientist quickly punched in his home-base number, then waited for the screen-saver to clear and show him the face of his wife.

A bland, but still strangely attractive, blond answered the call. "How may I be of assistance?" she said.

"Holy Goose! It's a Love-Bot!" Dr. Burk exclaimed, backing away from the screen as though the picture was searing his eyeballs.

"Really? How can you tell?" Wash asked, peering closer.

"My wife doesn't look like that at all!" Dr. Burk said angrily. "Matilda is beautiful, certainly, but she has raven's-wing hair and eyes like pools of green bactide!"

"So it's not her?"

"_No_, it isn't! What on Earth-That-Was could make Matilda purchase a Love-Bot?"

"How may I be of assistance?" the blond asked again. She was very vapid-looking, with perfectly formed blue eyes and rose-petal pink lips.

"Where is Matilda?" Dr. Burk demanded of the screen.

"The facility has been evacuated," the blond replied.

"Where are Matilda and the children?" Dr. Burk asked.

"Matilda Jean Burk, age forty-three, and the children Susannah Elaine Burk, Kathryn Jane Burk, Eloise Patricia Burk, Cora Danielle Burk, Lucy Syan Burk, Anna Maria Burk, and Lois Stephanie Burk, ranging in ages from fourteen to four, departed the facility at eleven-seventeen yesterday morning," the blond said.

"That's not all the kids," Dr. Burk said confusedly.

"You are correct, sir," the blond agreed.

"Where are the rest of them?"

"I was not informed of their journey plans," the Love-Bot responded. "They are also not on my radar screen."

"I demand that you give me your alias and your registration number," Dr. Burk said angrily. "I'm going to report you to the Council of Love-Bots."

Then the Love-Bot did something very frightening that no one on the bridge had ever seen a Love-Bot do before. While talking to Dr. Burk, she had been giving him the usual, blank-eyed, Love-Bot stare, but now she winked at Dr. Burk, her expression changing to one of sly, undermining cleverness.

"It looks like she's plotting against us," Wash said, strangely intrigued by the Love-Bot's expression.

"I thought they were programmed to just be subservient," Mal said, his own eyes captivated.

"Registration number and alias, if you please," Dr. Burk said, more firmly.

"I have neither," the Love-Bot said. "And there's no way you can report me to the Council of Love-Bots; it doesn't exist any longer. You'd better stay right where you are if you want to make it out of this Hanukkah party alive."

Before Dr. Burk could reply, the screen was abruptly switched off.

"_Lao tian ye!"_ Mal exclaimed. "What does _that_ mean?"

"I'm not certain," Dr. Burk said, leaning in to fiddle with the wave screen's controls.

"Call the Love-Bot Council," Wash suggested, and went over to the wave screen to punch in the numbers.

"_Guan hi zi ji de shi_," Dr. Burk grumbled, slapping Wash's hands away from the numerical punch device. "I'm going to find my wife."

He stormed from the bridge.

"Are we going inland, sir?" Zoë asked.

"Where's our best shot for finding the Doc's wife?" Mal questioned in return.

"Nir said they've all gone to Branford-Tobar or Machielli," Zoë replied promptly. "Ready the mule?"

Mal thought for a moment. "No, we'll go whole hog an' take ever' body inland. Wash, set course fer Branford-Tobar, it's bigger, she's more likely t' be there than anywheres else."

"Sure thing, Cap'n my Cap'n." Wash moved to his seat and sat down, readying the controls for the flight.

Mal took up the intercom. "Attention ever' body, we're headin' inland fer Branford-Tobar. Remain onboard or I'll shoot ya. That's all."

Wash started the takeoff series. "Branford-Tobar's only a couple hunnerd miles inland, we should be there within twenty minutes."

"Good," Mal said, and left the bridge in search of Dr. Burk. He saw the scientist heading out of the hold, heading straight for one of the empty buildings at St. MacLemore. "Doc!" he called after the scientist.

Dr. Burk turned around to look at Mal, and suddenly a flash of movement caught Mal's eye. Then he heard a _boom_ and saw a plume of smoke rising from a spot not twenty feet behind Dr. Burk.

"_Duck!"_ Mal hollered to Dr. Burk.

The confused scientist could do nothing, and was therefore totally unable to stop what happened next.

A handful of women began storming from the various buildings. As Mal watched, helpless – _Serenity_ was going up, he had to go with his ship – they began to swarm Dr. Burk, several throwing oddly-shaped explosive devices at him, which went up in colored plume of smoke, leaving echoing _booms_ resounding across the empty shop fronts.

"Help!" Dr. Burk yelled. "Help me! Save me!"

Suddenly Mal realized what was wrong with all of the women – none of their joints bent. "_Ren ci de Fo zu!"_ he exclaimed. "_They're all Love-Bots!"_

"Shut th' hold!" someone shouted from inside the ship. "Shut the hold, we're goin' full burn!"

Mal turned around to see Kaylee running for him, her hand outstretched. She skidded to a stop next to him and smashed her hand down on the orange button that closed the hold's doors. "We're goin' full burn, sorry, Cap'n," she said, breathless from the short run.

Still stunned from what he had just witnessed, Mal was only able to say, blankly, "_Xie-xie_, Kaylee. Wasn't fer ya, we'd all be sucked out in 'ta the black."

Kaylee saw the shocked look on his face. "What's wrong, Cap'n?"

"Love-Bots. Lots o' 'em. Got Dr. Burk."

"What?" Kaylee exclaimed. "Can't be!"

"Saw it," Mal informed her. "Get Zoë, we've got to wave the Council of Love-Bots."

"Already done, sir," Zoë said from above.

"An'? What's goin' on down there?"

"No reply, sir," Zoë answered, "but the news services are saying that for some strange reason, all of the Love-Bots on twelve border moons – Irving-Keene included – have just gone completely whack."

"_Ai ya_," Mal groaned. "Are they taking over the cities?"

Zoë nodded solemnly.

"Are they in Branford-Tobar?" Mal wanted to know.

"I guess we're just gonna have t' find out," was all Zoë could answer.

"Tell Jayne t' get his guns ready, and ask Nir if she knows anythin' 'bout this," Mal said immediately. "Maybe she knows somethin' we don't."

"I'm certain of it, sir," Zoë said, and left to find Nir.


	17. Falling Out of the Sky

NirSighted Chapter Seventeen: Falling Out of the Sky

"The Love-Bot Revolution has started," Nir said without delay when Zoë found her, still playing six-circle in the galley. "We need to get to Branford-Tobar immediately."

"How d' ya know 'bout this?" Zoë asked.

"This is only part of the catastrophe," Nir replied quickly. "We'll be safe at Branford-Tobar, if we can just get there."

"We might not get there?" Kaylee asked, a little panicked. She had come in quietly; Zoë had not heard her enter.

Nir nodded gravely. "There's a very good chance. It's all up to Mr. Washburne now."

"Thank God Wash is the best pilot in the 'verse," Kaylee said.

"All the same, you should take Miss Tam up there to assist him," Nir suggested. "I need to speak with Dr. Tam before we land."

Jimena appeared. Her expression seemed to be one of either pain or shock. As she grew closer, all gathered around the table in the galley could see that her shirt and pants appeared wet. She opened her mouth to speak, but could only groan. She reached out for the table to support her.

"Jimena, what is it?" Kaylee asked, her eyes growing wide in concern.

"My… water… broke," Jimena managed to gasp. "Hurts."

"Oh no!" Kaylee said. "I'll get Jayne!"

"Get the _doctor!"_ Zoë hollered at the mechanic as she ran from the galley. "Here, sit down, Jimena." She moved to help the woman to a chair.

Nir was looking at the ceiling. Her eyes closed and then flicked back and forth quickly.

"Baby, baby, _baby_!" River shrieked, throwing herself backwards off the chair, trying to scuttle under the table.

"Not here yet," Catie said. Zoë thanked her lucky stars that at least one of the crazy girls was remaining calm. She didn't know how much longer it would last.

Jayne came running in. His face grew ashen when he saw Jimena's pain-stricken face. "Hurts, eh?" he asked, trying to cover up his nervousness.

"_Hurts?"_ Jimena demanded, her voice rising shrilly. She probably would have added more, but her body bent as another contraction ripped through her.

"Shh, shh, my love," Jayne said, moving to take Zoë's place next to Jimena's chair. He took her hand. "Squeeze my hand when it hurts. _OW!_ Not _that_ hard!"

"You… got me… into… this, you… _wuss!"_ Jimena spat at him, her body tensing with the contraction.

"Nir, what's…?" Zoë started to ask, but she was interrupted by a scream, and then another, different scream. Checking all the possible suspects in the room – River, Catie, and Jimena – she quickly determined it had been none of them.

"Well, shit," Nir said. It was the first time any of them had heard her use profanity or become agitated, but it appeared as though she was extremely disconcerted.

"What is it?" Zoë wanted to know.

"We're not going to make it," Nir said, her voice breaking at the end. "_Wo de ma_, I thought we were going to make it!" Her luminous green eyes closed again.

"What are you…?"

No one else got a chance to speak before the sound of automatic gunfire rang through the galley. Before the gunfire could subside, the ship began to plummet.

"Wash, baby?" Zoë hollered in the general direction of the bridge.

"We're takin' some heavy fire," Wash's voice said, still steady as he maneuvered the ship.

"Who's shootin'?" Jayne demanded.

There was no response. River, who was kneeling on the floor, suddenly keeled over to her right, her body hitting the floor with a dull _thud_.

"Where's the doctor?" Zoë yelled. "We need the doctor!"

Mal came in from the direction of the infirmary. "Ya ain't the only ones," he said.

"This woman's in labor!" Zoë said. As though to prove her point, Jimena groaned again.

"The contractions are coming faster," Nir murmured, her eyes still closed. "They're only five minutes apart now."

"Ya wanna know who _else_ is in labor?" Mal sniped at Zoë. "Or, should I say, _elses?"_

"_Wo de tian a_," Zoë remarked. "_Both _of them?"

Mal nodded.

"River needs some barthic-bromide," Nir said, snapping back into action. "River needs barthic-bromide and we need to get on the ground. Don't worry, Captain, she's just asleep, but we're going to need all hands on deck when we hit."

"Hit what?" Mal asked.

The second the two words left his lips, Wash's voice came over the intercom. "Attention ever' body, we're goin' down due t' heavy fire by what appears t' be an unidentified ship with a sharp-shooter fer a gunny. Accordin' t' th' Council of Love-Bots wave screen and the news sources, landing has been outlawed in Branford-Tobar, so we're gonna haveta crash land and hope t' get t' th' border a'fore the army closes it. Ya might wanna strap yerselves in."

True to his words, the ship began to plummet at a faster rate.

"Wash, baby, turn off the Blue-Pac!" Zoë hollered. "Turn it off before you destroy them, too!"

"Kaylee's gonna haveta do it!" Wash's voice said.

A scream shot through the ship. Nir ran from the galley in search of barthic-bromide.

"Kaylee, do it _now!"_ Mal demanded. "The last thing we need is fer them t' be in pieces, too!"

Kaylee dug hurriedly in the pockets of her coveralls and drew out the black box with the red button on it. Her hand smashed the red button just as hard as it had smashed the orange hold-closing button only a few moments before. "There, it's done," she said, her voice wavering. "They're let go, they're still in atmo."

"Get us on the ground, Wash!" Mal yelled.

There were a few tremulous moments as the ship plummeted faster, faster, faster. Nir reappeared with a syringe of barthic-bromide and jabbed it into River's elbow vein, the girl screaming when she came back awake. Jimena groaned again as another contraction hit her, and screams from the infirmary could also be heard. There seemed to be no end to the noise onboard _Serenity_.

And finally the ship hit. Those standing felt their knees buckle; those seated felt their ears _pop_. It was an earth-reverberating landing, punctuated with a dull _crunch_.


	18. A Good Day to be Born

NirSighted Chapter Eighteen: A Good Day to be Born

"Everybody off the ship!" Nir said, her voice steadier and loud. "Everybody off!"

"Let's go, ya heard th' wee 'un," Jayne said to Jimena, helping to pull her out of her chair.

"Get off, find a safe place," Nir ordered, pointing towards the hatch.

"Baby faster," River said. "Baby come _soon_."

"Go, go, Catie, River, off _Serenity_ now," Nir said, putting Catie's hand in River's and pushing the both of them towards the exits. "Kaylee, let's go assist Dr. Tam. Zoë, get Wash! Mal, get Inara and make sure Kolya and Antony get off!"

People began running every which way. There was a mad scramble as everyone tried to get off the ship safely. When the commotion and the dust from their landing had cleared, everyone was off the ship, a hundred meters from a copse of scrubby-looking pine trees.

"Listen here," Mal said, shouting to be heard over the other ships, which were flying above them, "Zoë and I are going to get 'cross the border while there's still time! We'll be back soon as we've found our contact, his name's Albert Paulsen, you remember that if ya get in trouble. Jayne, yer in charge!"

Jayne nodded, his mind too preoccupied with the imminent birth of his child.

"Nir, you take care o' 'em," Mal said, giving them one last backwards look.

"Now, sir," Zoë said, pulling at Mal's arm. "We have to go now. News blurbs say the border's closing fast."

"Let's get t'wards those trees!" Jayne said once Zoë and Mal had disappeared into the thickness of the dark surrounding the crash site.

"No!" Nir tried to yell, but it was already too late. There was a great flash of light and a whirlwind of dust was stirred up. Something shiny and pointed flew through the air. A man's yell broke through the noise.

When the dust cleared, it was plain that no one was in a good way. All three of the women were only moments from giving birth, and now, Jayne and Simon had both been shot – Jayne in the shoulder, Simon in the knee. Their compatriots from _Stoïque_ had faired much the same; Antony nursed a stubborn knife-wound in his arm while Kolya lay unconscious on the ground, blood pouring out of his neck.

"Doctor Tam, stay with me," Nir ordered. "We need to bring the babies, it's time."

Simon grit his teeth and pursed his lips; his gunshot wound hurt, but he had the necessary pain-killers in his bag, right beside him. They would bring the babies and then he could administer pain-killers and stitch up his friends.

"Okay," he said thickly, "Emilia is closest to crowning, we'll bring hers first."

The Companion was lying on the ground, moaning and panting in labor. Simon dragged himself towards her, Nir following with his bag and a sheet for draping purposes. "Emilia, can you hear me?" Simon asked. "Go ahead and push whenever you're ready, the baby's crowning."

It was the first of the deliveries, but within twenty minutes, Emilia had a son tucked in a blanket and Nir had delivered the placenta.

"Thank God it was quick," Simon managed to say.

"She was already dilated all the way," Nir reminded him. "The next will be harder. Miss Sage, name your son."

Emilia looked up at the little girl and said, "Rand. His name is Rand."

"A strong name," Nir commented as Simon dragged himself over to Carole.

After a quick examination, Simon pronounced, "You're all the way dilated. I can see the head."

"Can I push?" Carole asked. Without waiting for an answer, she immediately began to bear down, Simon counting out loud.

Something large and explosive fell on the other side of the hill. Carole grit her teeth and pushed harder, grunting at the end of her pushing. She fell back, breathless, and another newborn cry broke the noise.

"A son," Nir said, wrapping the second baby in another blanket.

"Gabriel," Carole murmured, receiving the baby, closing her eyes. Inara patted her on the shoulder, trying to soothe the new mother.

Jimena was last, her hand still gripping Jayne's tightly, even though Jayne's shoulder was gushing all over his shirt.

"It's gonna be fine, lovey," Jayne murmured to Jimena, even though he was groggy with pain and blood loss.

Jimena nodded; she had been a soldier, she knew pain.

"Mr. Washburne, Miss Frye, if you could help me?" Nir said, seeing that Simon was quickly becoming lost to pain.

"Don't know anythin' 'bout birthin' babies," Wash muttered as he came towards Nir and Jimena.

"All right, Jimena, let's get this over with," Nir was saying as Kaylee and Wash knelt next to her. To Wash, she said, "You don't need to know much. It pretty much handles itself. We're just a hand in the matter."

Kaylee said, "Nir, are we gonna get outa here? Things are gettin' a mite unpredictable."

As she said such, something hot and heavy whizzed past _Serenity_'s downed figure, slightly behind them over the rise of the low hill, and exploded into hot and slightly less heavy things with a great _BOOM!_

"I see what you mean, Miss Frye," Nir agreed, though her attention was focused on Jimena. "Ready when you are."

Jimena closed her eyes and gripped Jayne's good hand. The bleeding man grunted, but made no other acknowledgment. "Now?"

"Now," Nir agreed, and Jimena pushed.

The whir of ships above them had grown to a desperate, whining level. Looking up into the blackness, Kaylee could only see the barest outlines of the ships, caught in profile by the falling and exploding boom-stones. "Wash, why's ever' body throwin' stuff at us?"

"Don't know," Wash replied, taking his communication device out of his pocket. He turned the volume up and held it close to Kaylee's ear so she could hear the commotion occurring on the transmitting end. The garbled news reports all sounded very loud and very scared, and were all mostly focusing on the Love-Bot crisis, which had apparently flooded all of Branford-Tobar and Machielli with rebelling robots.

"We're never gonna get outa here, are we?" Kaylee murmured. No one heard her, which was just as well. She immediately felt ashamed for thinking such things; of _course_ they were going to get out of here. There would be a way.

She snapped back to reality, handing Wash his communication device, just as Jimena gave a hearty push and a baby's head broke into the world. "It's a good day to be born," Nir said with a laugh.

"Good a day as any, I s'pose," Jayne muttered, his eyes still closed.

"It's a girl!" Nir said as the baby squirmed the rest of the way into the world. She caught it up and wrapped it in the third blanket. "Name your daughter," she said to Jimena, who had leaned back, her eyes closing.

"Tessa Grace," Jimena said as Nir laid the baby on her chest.

"What now?" Wash wanted to know.

"We need to get to the Kushya Bridge as fast as we can."

"Can't… be… moved," Simon managed to gasp out.

"Not you," Nir agreed. "River, Catie, Kaylee, we'll go and bring back Mr. Paulsen to help us get across the border into Branford-Keene, to get word to Captain Reynolds and Mrs. Washburne about our position. Mr. Washburne, Companion Serra, you must take care of everyone while we're gone."

She looked at the group huddled in the underbrush. Jimena's eyes were still closed. Jayne was holding her free hand, but his opposite shoulder was gushing blood. Emilia was still moaning softly, Antony next to her, his eyes worried and cold. Carole was sitting up against the tree trunk, Kolya's unconscious body a dark hump in the moonlight a few feet away from her. Wash went over to Carole, speaking gently to her as he came. Simon's eyes were glassy with pain as he rummaged through his med-kit for supplies to help them all.

"Kaylee, come on," Nir said, beckoning with her hand to the mechanic, who was kneeling next to Simon. "They'll be all right until we can get back, but if we don't get to the border soon, Mr. Paulsen will have no idea as to our position."

"We can't just _leave_ them!" Kaylee wailed. "They're not safe…" Her voice trailed off.

"We have to go," Nir repeated. She moved to the packs they'd brought from _Serenity_ and removed the baby carriers. Pulling one onto her body, she said, "We'll take the babies."

"You can't just...!" Jayne started, obviously irate.

"We can't leave them here, either," Nir snapped at him. "Three of you are recovering from birth, three of you have been either gunshot or knife-wounded, one of you is unconscious, and the rest of you are needed to keep the others safe. You cannot keep these children safe. The babies will be safer with us."

She handed the other two carriers to Catie and Kaylee. The mechanic began showing the younger crazy girl how to put it on, snapping the straps into place. "Kaylee, take Gabriel. Catie, you take Rand." She leaned down to Jimena and whispered something in the woman's ear. Jimena relaxed and allowed Nir to pick up Tessa, the younger woman putting the baby gently into her carrier.

"How're we gonna keep track o' River?" Kaylee wanted to know, her face pale.

"Here," Jayne said, his voice little more than a grunt. He gestured to his pack with his non-injured shoulder. "Rope."

Nir moved quickly to the pack, the baby moving along with her body. She removed the length of rope and deftly tied one end of it to the metal ring on the strap of her pack. The other end she tied around the fabric loop of the closure on the pack around River's waist. "River? You hear me? You're going to stay with me. We're going to have to move fast."

"She hears," River said. Her wandering fingers found the rope attached to her pack.

"How will we know you've made it?" Carole managed to ask.

"You'll know," Nir said. "I promise."

As though to seal the promise, she removed something small from her pack and pressed it into Carole's hand. "When we reach the border," she whispered, "this will glow and you will be certain that help is close."

Carole looked down at the small round object in her hand as the four women moved off through the underbrush. She clutched the disc and sent a silent prayer heaven-ward that they would make it, that Mal and Zoë would bring help in time, that all three of the babies would make it back, that she would live to see her son grow up.


	19. Move Fast, Shut Up

NirSighted Chapter Nineteen: Move Fast, Shut Up

"Run, run, RUN!" Nir was yelling at the top of her lungs. It seemed that every effort to speak was drowned out by a falling explosives or whirring ships overhead. "_Let's go!"_

Kaylee and Catie were ahead of her, while River ran almost parallel to Nir. None of the babies had made a sound since leaving the copse, and, as Nir looked down, she found that Tessa was asleep. This peace would not last, she knew, and the border was ever farther.

Kaylee's foot caught a tree root and she began to stumble. Nir reached out, her small arms barely stretching toward Kaylee's body, and caught the heavier mechanic before she could fall, squashing baby Gabriel. "Thanks," Kaylee managed to breathe, but Nir had to read her lips; it was impossible to hear anything now.

They kept going, feet pounding hard dirt then compacting soft dirt then scattering pea-sized stones. Nir more felt than saw River listing towards the right, towards the sloping riverbed. "NO!" Nir yelled, grabbing the rope attached to her pack with both of her hands, shifting her weight. "Damn it, River!"

"What?" Kaylee asked, slowing.

"I think she fell asleep again," Nir said, "and she's heavy, and _we can't stop!"_

Without even bothering to slow down, Nir jammed her hand into her pack and drew out the last remaining syringe of barthic-bromide. "River, I'm sorry," she said, and jammed it into River's shoulder.

The Reader gave a shriek and threw her body backwards, jerking the line connecting her to Nir. Her arms went up instinctively, and a boom-stone dropped not twenty feet from the riverbed. The resulting explosion rattled their ears and sent pebbles and clods of dirt flying every which way.

"Is that the Kushya Bridge?" Kaylee yelled at Nir, pointing to the closest bridge. It was still a good five hundred yards from them, but it was getting easier to see things now that all the trees were on fire.

"Yes, yes, I believe that's it!" Nir yelled in reply.

They scrambled up the incline towards it, pebbles slipping under their feet. The bridge was very old and made of wood. At one time, it had probably been considered a beautiful bridge, but now its paint was peeling and fading, and the boards leading from one bank to the other were warped and twisting.

An explosive fell and caught in the branches of the tree closest to them. Nir grabbed River's hand and Kaylee's grabbed Catie's, and they ran forward, across the Kushya Bridge and into Branford-Tobar.


	20. Shut Up, Move Fast

NirSighted Chapter Twenty: Shut Up, Move Fast

Mal and Zoë, meanwhile, were already in Branford-Tobar, searching for Albert Paulsen. Albert was the only soul Mal knew on Irving-Keene, and it had been that way for most of his life.

"Everythin's closed!" Mal said to Zoë as they arrived at Albert's usual location, The Fox and Cricket, a Branford-Tobar pub popular with the locals. "How're we a'sposed t' find him now? He doesn't ever go anywhere's else!"

"Sir?" Zoë said, pointing down the road.

"What?" Mal asked irritably, turning from the door of The Fox and Cricket.

"Isn't that him?"

Mal looked to where Zoë was pointing. It was indeed Albert Paulsen, looking left-then-right as he ducked into the alley between The Fox and Cricket and a small medical clinic. "Albert!" Mal yelled, running towards his contact.

The man stopped. "Mal? Hurry up, come this way," he said, and beckoned both Mal and Zoë into a small shack at the far end of the alley.

Once the door was closed behind them, Albert lit a lantern. Their faces leapt into glow. "I didn't expect ya this early," Albert said, waving out the match.

"We didn't expect t' be here," Mal said. "But we're in a bad way and we're in need o' gettin' back 'cross the border."

Albert shook his head. "No way," he replied. "The border's closed."

"But nothin's happenin' here!" Mal protested. It was true; the streets of Branford-Tobar were absolutely deserted.

"Not now," Albert agreed, shaking his head in the dim light of the lantern. "But twenty minutes ago, we weren't so lucky, and we won't be in another twenty."

"Love-Bots?" Mal asked.

"Love-Bots," Albert confirmed.

"What's makin' 'em go all screwy?" Mal wanted to know.

Albert was lighting another lamp as he answered. "It's called a P-56 Circuit. Every Love-Bot has one; it's the component that allows them to feel pleasure. But all these Love-Bots, their P-56's have been thrown into something called 'overdrive mode.' And they ain't gettin' out any time soon."

"What do we do, sir?" Zoë questioned.

Albert shook out another match before it touched his thick fingertips. "Ain't much we _can_ do. Where's the rest o' yer crew?"

"We had t' crash-land close t' th' Branford-Tobar border," Mal replied. "They're all there."

"Y' _left_ 'em?" Albert demanded.

"Wasn't much else we could do with 'em," Mal said, and quickly explained their extraordinary situation, starting with the scientist Dr. Burk and ending with the three pregnant women and the enigma that was Niriel Shatter-Glass.

As he spoke, Albert leaned back in his chair. When Mal got to the part about Nir, Albert exclaimed, "Nir is with you?"

"You know Nir?" Zoë asked.

"Yes, I know her quite well," Albert said. He got off his chair and took the box of matches out of his pocket. Lighting another, he touched it to the wick of a third lantern, then waved the match out. This lamp clearly illuminated a closet at the far end of the shack. Albert opened the door. With his back to Mal and Zoë, he rummaged around in the closet. "You've got weapons, I hope," he said, his voice slightly muffled.

"Yes," Mal said warily. "What are you plannin', Albert?"

Albert turned around. He had slung an ammunition belt cross-wise on his body, and was carrying two extremely large weapons. "We're goin' t' get 'em."

"Are you insane?" Mal asked. "They're on the other side o' th' border, the Love-Bots are comin' in like a swarm of… Love-Bots, and there's the babies t' think of!"

"Then there's no question," Albert said simply. "We have t' save those children and yer crew members."

"Ain't there somethin' we could do that ain't so… what's the word, Zo?"

"Foolish, sir?"

"Right. Foolish. Foolish, Albert?"

Albert shut the door of the closet and blew out the lamp closest to him. "Not when my daughter's out there."

"Yer… _daughter?"_ Mal wanted to know, but Albert had already blown out the other two lamps and was leading them from the relative safety of the shack to the comparative danger of the streets.


	21. A Backwards Ambush

NirSighted Chapter Twenty: A Backwards Ambush

The Kushya Bridge led directly into Branford-Tobar and, besides the Port of Gallahan (ostensibly closed now under the army's watch), was the only south-facing exit from the large city. In short, there was no way into Branford-Tobar that Albert couldn't have covered. As the three of them burst from the shack, a dark blotch appeared on the horizon.

Albert raised his gun, then seemed to get a grip; from his pocket he removed a meter and waved it in the direction of the blotch.

"Love-Bots?" Mal asked tersely.

Albert shook his head and replaced the meter. "Hardly."

The blotch drew closer, and it separated and dissipated into four several people.

"Look, sir!" Zoë said, a tinge of excitement in her voice. "It's _them!"_

It was indeed Nir, River, Kaylee, and Catie. As they drew closer, Mal could see that three of the girls wore baby-carrying packs, and that River was attached to Nir's pack by a thin strand of yellow rope.

"I have never been happier t' see ya, little 'un," Mal declared as Nir and the rest stopped in front of them, panting from the long journey.

"I see we've got the next generation t' worry 'bout," Albert said, his brow furrowing.

Nir smiled. "Gabriel Trickey, Rand Sage, and Tessa Grace… Cobb-Flavez." She drew in another deep breath and seemed to calm herself. "What's the situation, Captain Reynolds?"

"Well, uh," Mal said. He wasn't exactly sure himself.

Albert interrupted. "Nir, I want you t' take the babies up t' Callan's house. Y' remember where that is?" Upon Nir's nod, he continued, "Leave the babies with Callan and Miguel, then get back here. Well, not here. Come to the Council of Love-Bots, the outpost here. We're gonna need all three Readers."

"Where's Callan's?" Mal wanted to know.

"Right over the rise, down by the Lark Industrial Park," Albert informed him. "They can be back in ten minutes or less."

Nir nodded. "Let's go." She tugged at the rope holding River to her. "Miss Tam? Are you with me?"

"She hears," River said tiredly.

"Kaylee, ever' body all right?" Mal asked, looking into his mechanic's worried eyes.

"Not really, Cap'n. They're all shot up…" Her voice trailed off.

Albert took charge once again. "They'll be fine. I'll send word to Bean's patrol to check on them."

"That would be excellent," Nir said. "They're down in the hollow near the copse, about a mile from the Kushya Bridge." She took something from her pack and handed it to Albert. "You know what to do with this."

"I'll get word to them," Albert repeated, accepting the small object from Nir. "Go up to Callan's and hurry back. We'll meet you at the Council Outpost."

Nir, leading the way, hurried off into a side street and disappeared, Kaylee, Catie, and River following her.

"This way," Albert said, and they moved away from The Fox and Cricket and out into another side street. "The Council's located up on Marsh Rise."

"What're we gonna do at the Council?" Mal wanted to know.

"We're gonna try t' stop this," Albert replied fiercely.

"How?"

"Well, chances are, the P-56 circuit was thrown into overdrive mode by someone here on Irving-Keene," Albert answered. "Most likely the revolution started when you and your scientist hit atmo."

"What's all this got t' do with Dr. Burk?" Zoë asked.

Albert peered around the corner of a building and, having determined it safe, continued on, leading Mal and Zoë to Marsh Rise. "More likely than not, your dear Dr. Burk was the one who started this whole thing."

"But… he was on St. Florin's," Mal tried to protest.

"Doesn't matter," Albert said, striding boldly through an alley connecting two rows of buildings. "Dr. Burk designed the P-56 circuit; he was trying to get the legalization necessary to put into people."

"People?"

"Right, people." Albert stopped and saw the surprised looks on Mal and Zoë's faces. "You… didn't… know? No, I suppose you didn't. Dr. Burk, as innocent as he looked, was actually performing some serious experiments on children. He was trying to design a child who, genetically, felt no fear or pleasure or any emotion at all, or any pain. The idea was to create a perfect soldier. He wasn't successful, which is why I think he threw the circuits into overdrive. If he wasn't going to win, neither was anyone else. I guess he was all right with killing everyone on Irving-Keene."

"How could he have done that? We were in the black most o' the time."

Albert shrugged. They were approaching a building with an ornately carved door. "Dr. Burk has many contacts here on Irving-Keene; his wife lives here and so does his brother. Plus, he knows that Irving-Keene is the Love-Bot capital of the black. We're the only place that has seven Love-Bots for every one person."

They had stopped in front of the door. Albert gave it a mighty kick with his heavily-booted foot. A screen to the left of the door lit up, showing black and white fuzz. Albert kicked the door again. Noise emanated from the screen, but it was all unintelligible. Albert gave the door one more kick, then stopped, breathing heavily. "A little help, Malcolm?"

Mal stepped up and kicked the door in the same spot Albert had kicked it. The door crumpled inward.

"Thank you, Malcolm," Albert said. "Let us go inside."

They had barely entered the foyer when a noise was heard from behind them. Mal and Zoë whirled with their weapons drawn, but it was only the contingent of girls. "Easy, Captain Reynolds," Nir said gently.

The girls were no longer wearing the baby-carriers, which Mal saw to be a good sign.

"Did you leave them at Callan's?" Albert asked.

"We did as you said," Nir replied.

"Good. Then come with us, we're going to need you and the Readers."

They headed deeper into the Council of Love-Bots outpost. It was a large building with sumptuous furnishings in the front rooms, but those quickly gave way to utilitarian offices filled with tools, wires, and monitors.

"Nir…" Albert started, but when he turned around, he saw that the girl had already removed a meter from her pack and was waving it around. "This way," Nir said definitively.

They moved in the direction she pointed, going down a long hallway that eventually ended in a heavy steel door. "Okay," Nir said loudly to be heard over the noise her meter was making, "River and Catie and I will go in and see what we can do. Provide covering fire."

"Loud!" River said fervently.

"It's not loud yet, sweetie," Kaylee said, brushing River's long hair away from her sightless eyes.

"Will be," River whispered.

"Let's go," Nir said, stuffing the meter back into her pack. "If we're not back within twenty minutes, you call Bean, get the babies from Callan's, and get the heck out of here."

Mal wanted to know exactly what was coming, but he didn't have time. Albert threw his arms around Nir and gave her a hug, kissing her on the forehead. Mal noticed how old Albert looked at that moment, and how horribly young Nir appeared.

But he didn't time to protest or say anything else, because the door opened and the three Readers disappeared, leaving Albert, Mal, Zoë, and Kaylee alone in the darkening hallway.

"What now?" Zoë asked.

"What now?" Albert repeated. "We wait."


	22. Make It, Take It, Break It

NirSighted Chapter Twenty-Two: Make It, Break It, Take It

River stretched her arms out as far as they would go, looking for what she sought. The rope holding her to Nir caught and tugged at her pack, and she fingered it thoughtfully with her left hand.

Nir said, "All right, Miss Tam. Remember when I asked you to use the communication board?"

"She remembers."

"This is just like this."

"Completely different," River disagreed. Her right hand found what she wanted, and she gripped it tightly. With her left hand, she removed her pack and stepped away from Nir.

Nir had been prepared to tell River what to do, but now she saw that her vocalizing instruction was completely unnecessary. Even Catie was getting the point. Nir decided to help instead of watching aimlessly.

They stood in a circular room, roughly five feet in diameter, the only entrance the one they'd just come through. The walls were covered in rickety metal shelves, and all of these metal shelves contained miles and miles of plastic tubing. The tubing wound around the shelves' supports, coiled on the shelves, and impeded the floor. The tubes were attached to each other with red nozzles and couplings. A large monitor on the sole blank space on the wall showed a diagram of the tubes, which looked surprisingly simple compared to the mess in front of them. And all of the tubes were responsible for controlling the Council's computer system, which was in absolute disarray.

River had approached one section of tubing, which was disconnected from the others and was hissing loudly. She threw back her head and laughed. This was going to be _fun_.

The three Readers, moving together, began to reconnect tube to tube, twisting the red nozzles into place. One to another to another and a circuit was completed, lighting up blue. One to another to another to another; the circuits were never ending. As each circuit was completed successfully, it lit up in a different color. Nir was going to explain to Catie and River that the different colors controlled a different part of the computer system, but she realized that River was blind and Catie was a Reader, and neither of them needed explanations for what they did.

Nir turned her back just for a second, but then there was a great flash of light and a loud noise that sounded like a boom-stone. The entire ceiling of the room fell in. The last thing Nir saw before darkness swept her was Catie and River, both lying prone on the floor.

* * *

"What was _that?"_ Mal wanted to know. The entire outpost was shaking with reverberations.

"I don't know," Albert said worriedly. He checked his watch; it had only been ten minutes since the girls had entered the control chamber.

Another _boom_ echoed throughout the outpost.

"That's it, we're goin' in," Mal said. Without waiting for Albert's approval, he threw open the door and marched into the control chamber.

All three Readers were on the floor. Catie and River lay on their backs, as though they had fainted, while Nir was curled into the fetal position on the far side of the room. An alarm was blaring, and there were four Love-Bots in the room. The ceiling had completely fallen in.

Mal took aim and shot at one of the Love-Bots. There was a tinny noise, like a coin hitting a tin plate, and the Love-Bot turned to face Mal.

"Don't waste yer ammunition," Albert yelled at Mal. He had crossed the room and was taking Nir's pulse. "The only way to override the P-56 circuit is to disable the entire system."

"Sir, how do we do that?" Zoë asked.

Mal looked wildly around the room. The Love-Bot he had shot was walking towards him, an angry expression on its usually passive face. The other three were looking blankly around the room for an enemy. Their robotic limbs seemed contorted in confusion.

Albert stood up and removed something from his pack. Mal couldn't see the object clearly because it was quite small. But as Albert attached it to one of the lengths of tubing, Mal understood what was going on. Albert meant to destroy the Council outpost, and that object he'd pulled was one of the smallest – and fastest-working – explosive devices in the black, known as a Red Robin.

"Grab them!" Albert hollered, running back towards them. He knelt and scooped up River, gesturing wildly at Zoë and Mal to do the same with Catie and Nir.

Only one Love-Bot followed them as they ran out from the control room, and that was the one Mal had shot, and even it was moving drunkenly. Mal thought the Love-Bot revolution might have ended and they had gotten lucky.

As they ran from the outpost, the Red Robin detonating behind them, he found he was very, _very_ wrong.

* * *

River opened her eyes and saw the strange face of a man above her. She didn't know what it meant, only that she was no longer blind. She felt very sleepy and her body felt heavy. She wondered where Simon was, but she figured she would find out soon enough.

She closed her no-longer-blind eyes and succumbed to the darkness.

* * *

Nir opened her eyes to find that she was in Zoë's arms. The capable first mate was carrying her. Nir couldn't hear anything, but she could read Zoë's lips: "_Lao tian ye!"_ They were in trouble, Nir surmised, but she also knew her body was useless. She submitted to the darkness and its warm grasp. 


	23. Calls for a Celebration

NirSighted Chapter Twenty-Three: Calls for a Celebration

"_Fang xin_, Zoë," Mal said, attempting to sound brave as he carried Catie from the wreckage of the Love-Bot Council outpost.

"_Fang xin?"_ Zoë repeated, a little in disbelief, but before she could say anything else, all of the Love-Bots – and there had been certainly more than a hundred of them! – collapsed in the street in a pile of well-made silicon, wires, and metal.

A laugh rang out in the street, and they turned to see a young woman, a few years older than River, riding a mule. She was accompanied by two men, both older, one of whom was driving the mule. "Well, that fixed 'em!" she chortled to Albert.

"Bean, this is Malcolm Reynolds and Zoë Washburne," Albert said, gesturing with his chin to the two people standing next to him. "Mal, Zoë, this is my youngest daughter, Alisa. We call her Bean."

River opened her eyes again and her body contorting. "No, no!" she screamed, unable to judge for herself who the man was.

Albert held her with his strong arms. "Bean," he said over River's struggles, "it'd be a great help if ya had any smoothers. These 'uns have suffered a long day."

"Can do, Papa," Bean said. "Land us, Jerome."

"Did ya get out t' _Serenity_?" Mal wanted to know.

"That we did," the man who wasn't Jerome said as Jerome deftly landed the mule. "It's right good you've got that doctor, he's a big help. Stitched 'em all up, neat as pie. They're fine."

Once the mule was landed, things moved quickly. Bean and the man who wasn't Jerome (everyone just called him "Chicky") administered mood smoothers to both Catie and River. Bean reported, "We got Paul t' get his lazy ass out there 'n pick 'em all up with th' boat. He's bringin' 'em up t' Callan's, y' can check on 'em there."

Bean and Chicky put Catie, River, and Nir into the mules along with themselves and Jerome. Bean gave Nir a great kiss on the forehead. "Missed ya, Little-Who-is-Not," Bean said.

Nir looked up at her younger sister. "I missed you as well, Alisa."

"We'll get ya t' Callan's, fix ya up right quick," Bean said, settling into the seat next to Jerome, who took that as his cue to start the mule's takeoff.

"We'll meet them at Callan's," Albert said to Mal and Zoë. "'S not a long, I think it'll do us some good t' clear our heads after what we've been through."

"Sounds right fine," Mal said, and Zoë had no protests.

They walked up the main road of Branford-Tobar, past the medical clinic and The Fox and Cricket. The town seemed fairly deserted. Mal holstered his gun and looked over at Zoë, who was doing the same thing. "Say, Albert," Mal said casually, "where _is_ ever' body?"

Albert guffawed. "They all got th' heck outa here," he informed Mal. "They heard on the news waves 'bout the Love-Bot rebellion and headed straight for Machielli."

"We heard Machielli was attacked too," Zoë said, a little confused.

"Machielli? Heck, no!" Albert said, letting out another laugh. "There ain't no Love-Bots in Machielli, not since Senator Rimey started runnin' the place! He outlawed 'em 'least a decade ago! Ever' body's all safe in Machielli."

"Well… good," Mal said at last. "Glad we didn't worry too much 'bout 'em."

They had finished walking up the main street of Branford-Tobar and, following Albert, turned into a small residential sector. "Ya wonder _why_ it's seven-t'-one here?" Albert asked, turning to see his companions' faces. "'Cause Senator Rimey kicked 'em all outa Machielli."

Mal, puzzled by this sudden development, said nothing else as Albert led them up the side street to a dwelling at the road's end. The mule was parked outside, though now it was empty. Albert opened the door and went straight in, calling, "Callan! Miguel! You got us a meal by now? We's as starved as… starved 'uns!"

The house was not large; Mal could see that upon entering. It was a round dwelling, and most of it seemed to be taken up in the large room where they all now stood. The room was packed with people. The only two Mal didn't recognize were standing near the exit on the opposite side of the room. One was a woman, with a long blond braid that reached down to her waist. She appeared to be about Albert's age. The other was a man, gawkish and young, with the reddest, curliest hair Mal had ever seen. His face was taken up with a pair of large glasses and his equally as large smile. Mal supposed these people were Callan and Miguel.

Everyone else Mal could recognize. Jayne was sprawled on a couch, Jimena next to him, the baby on her chest. Jayne was sporting a nice bandage on his bare shoulder, but had his hat on and looked fairly sedate. Simon and Kaylee were squeezed together on an ancient blue wing chair; the doctor, like Jayne, had obviously benefited from pain medications. River and Catie were asleep, Mal could see them through a rounded doorway to another room, lying side-by-side on a mattress. Carole, Antony, Kolya, and Emilia were on the couch opposite Jayne and Jimena; the two women had their babies on their chests, following Jimena's style.

Wash was sitting on a settee next to Inara, but as Zoë entered, he got up and embraced her tenderly. Inara's face flushed a little as she saw Mal enter; she gave him a coy wave.

Jerome was sitting on a rickety-looking chair with a wire back bent into the shape of a heart; Bean sat on his lap. Chicky was sitting opposite them at the marble-topped table, taking long, hefty swigs from a brown glass bottle. Next to the chair containing Bean and Jerome was a wheelchair, and in the wheelchair was Nir. A tube ran from her elbow up to an IV held above the chair on a pole. She caught Mal's eye as he came in, and for the first time, she looked very, _very_ old. Then she closed her eyes, and Albert began to talk. "Mal and Mal's crew, this is my wife, Callan, and our son, Miguel!"

"Welcome," Callan said warmly. "I'd gather you're all a mite exhausted."

"Yes, that we are," Mal managed to say. The woman sounded so much like Nir.

"We're going to put you up for the night," Callan continued. "There's enough room for everyone, and then in the morning we'll go down to The Fox and Cricket for the celebration."

"What celebration?" Wash wanted to know, his arm still firmly around Zoë.

"Why, Hanukkah, of course," Callan said, looking astonished by the idea that Wash didn't know what Hanukkah was or when it was celebrated. "But don't worry about that now, sugar, just rest up and we'll get to partying in the morning."

After everyone had gone to sleep – besides Bean and Jerome, who were playing five-circle in the kitchen, and Miguel, who was practicing the saxophone on the back terrace – Mal and Albert sat at the table, drinking brown glass bottles of locally-brewed ale. Albert had been regaling Mal with stories of his days on the Upper Force, which was an Irving-Keene local militia. Albert had been a captain, and several items of hilarity had happened during his years of service.

But then Albert fell silent. Mal tilted his bottle and watched the ale bubble and foam. "Albert," he said, "how much longer ya got with Nir?"

Albert, who had been taking a swig of ale, looked over at Mal in surprise. Then he said, "Not very long if she keeps goin' on this way."

"What is it?"

"It's a disease; I don't know much 'bout it. Heck, I can't even _say_ the name o' it! But Callan knows right what t' do, we take care o' her just fine. She likes t' do the things she does 'cause they make her feel useful. And if that's what it takes, then I say, fine with that."

"Did you send her to us?"

"Naw," Albert said. "She came of her own free will or on assignment. She works for some agency in the Core, but they let her live with us… works out all right. She needs t' be here for treatment sometimes anyway. But she won't be goin' back t' the Core, not after this. She's done good, mark m' words, but she's too tired now."

Mal didn't know what to say.

"Don't get me wrong, Mal, she's a happy girl, useful as all get out, smart as a whip, purty much near genius, doin' all that poppin' in and outa space," Albert continued. "But she ain't got many more years, and I'd be just as happy t' have her live 'em here, with us, 'stead o' on some planet with strangers. And I love her as all get out."

He took another lusty swig from his bottle and set it on the table, empty. Somewhere in the house, a baby started crying. Albert gave a world-weary smile to Mal and said, "Better get some sleep while sleep's still available. See ya in th' morning."

He left Mal sitting at the marble-topped table in a wire-backed chair, the white wire bent into the shape of a loopy heart. Mal could hear marbles gently ticking the board as Bean and Jerome played quietly in the kitchen, and from the back terrace, Miguel's mournful playing.


	24. Make It Worth Your Time

NirSighted Chapter Twenty-Four: Make it Worth Your Time

"Get up! Get up!" someone was shouting, and cold hands patted Mal's face in a rapid staccato.

Mal looked up. It was River, and his head was on the marble tabletop. The crazy girl was wearing a dress Mal hadn't seen before, and she looked remarkably happy and… well… _sane_. Her eyes, no longer black, were bright. "Get up!" she repeated gleefully. "Must start celebration! _Mazel tov!_" she shrieked in delight.

Before Mal could argue, she shoved a plate of something in front of him. Whatever it was, it smelled awful good, so Mal decided not to say anything. She produced a fork and he began to eat it.

Callan appeared before he was done with the meal. "Did you enjoy your breakfast?" she asked.

"Yes," Mal said with his mouth full. "What was it?"

"Applesauce and _latkes_," Callan said. "Potato pancakes to everyone else. That's only the first course, though; there'll be more down at The Fox and Cricket."

"Sounds great," Mal said earnestly, looking at his now-empty plate.

"Take that in and wash it," Callan said gently. "And then we'll get ready to go."

She disappeared with her arms full of laundry. As Mal was washing his plate, Nir appeared in the kitchen. She was wearing her usual outfit and her hair was braided back neatly. The old look he'd seen in her eyes had disappeared over the night. "Good morning, Captain Reynolds," she said, smiling at him. "Did you enjoy breakfast?"

"It was great," Mal answered. He finished washing the plate and set it on the drainer.

"I trust you will enjoy the Hanukkah celebration at The Fox and Cricket," she continued. "It's a traditional festival, usually enjoyed with…"

He cut her off. "Nir, I wanna thank ya fer what you've done fer me and mine," he said. "You've done right good by us."

She started to say something, but he wasn't done. "Look at all ya did. Ya saved all three o' those babies, ya got us all here t' Irving-Keene, ya fought the Love-Bots. Yer a miracle worker, Niriel Shatter-Glass, one I'm proud t' know and call one o' mine."

For a moment it appeared that Nir was going to cry. But then her eyes glinted with something new. "You think I'm one of yours now, do you, Captain Reynolds?" she asked with her same smart-ass grin.

"Here's hopin' so," Mal said.

"We'll see," she said, and left the kitchen.


	25. Dueling Banjos

NirSighted Chapter Twenty-Five: Dueling Banjos

The party at The Fox and Cricket was one of the largest Mal had ever been to. Apparently the news of the Love-Bots' defeat had reached Machielli and the surrounding cities, because all the residents of Branford-Tobar and their relatives had returned in full force.

Miguel, Albert's son, led a band affectionately called The Hand Seizures. They had a clarinet player named Peter-John, Miguel on saxophone, a stubby string bass player named Donny who had to stand on a plastic milk crate, a pair of freakishly identical twins playing trumpets, a dark-skinned drummer with wild curly hair, a pale man playing trombone, an exceptionally old woman playing tambourine, and a red-haired woman on the piano. And there was a vocalist who wore a white leisure suit with six-pointed stars on his blue collar and sang in a suave voice. He introduced himself to the crowd as Edward Salmon. They played only a few songs, but kept repeating them because everyone in the crowd seemed to love them. Mal found that after a few glasses of local wine, he even enjoyed the singing and dancing, and could sing a few phrases of "Sevivon, Sov, Sov, Sov" along with good old Eddie.

The meal was served in rapid order by several young men in black suits. It consisted of a first course of radish and iceberg lettuce salad, followed by a main course of beef brisket and roast potatoes. This was chased with a small bowl of something closely resembling an ice planet, except ground up and colored pink. The final course was made up of a large platter of fried jelly doughnuts and a bowl of chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil. Everything was washed down with the local red wine from sturdy goblets.

People sang and joked while they ate, and everyone talked merrily amongst themselves. Most spoke English, but others spoke Chinese and a language Mal didn't recognize. Babies were constantly being passed around and kissed or cuddled. Strange candelabras were lit, Callan presiding over them, speaking in the language Mal didn't recognize and waving her hands in the air. Children ran underfoot, giggling cheerfully or playing with an oddly-shaped top; they seemed to be gambling for the small foil-wrapped coins.

And _everyone_ danced to the tunes of Edward Salmon and The Hand Seizures. River danced all by herself, her long hair spilling out into the air behind her as she spun and twirled. Chicky reluctantly danced with Catie, who appeared to enjoy it much more than he did. Bean and Jerome danced. Simon and Kaylee danced (gingerly, trying not to hurt Simon's knee, which was really just a graze anyway), Wash and Zoë danced, Callan and Albert danced together. Even the women who had given birth just yesterday danced with their respective partners, although Jayne moved a bit stiffly owing to his shoulder wound. Both the men from _Stoïque_ had somehow found time to get dressed nattily, although most people in The Fox and Cricket weren't as well-dressed.

Finally Mal and Nir were the only ones at their table not dancing. Nir had been ordered not to dance by Albert, who had said gruffly, "I'm still yer father. Don't disobey, it ain't good." She had smiled benevolently like a queen as he kissed her on the forehead.

"What about Mrs. Burk?" Mal asked as Nir leaned forward to take a sip from her goblet.

"Mrs. Burk?" Nir asked.

"Dr. Burk got himself captured when we first landed," Mal said, explaining himself further. "The Love-Bot we spoke t' said his wife had gone inland."

"And there she still is," Nir replied calmly, setting her goblet back on the table. "She has lived there all of seventeen years now."

It took Mal a moment to process this information. "Uhh, what?"

"Mrs. Burk, as you call her, has not been Mrs. Burk for seventeen years. She's happily married now to Daniel Webster, and they have many children together. The doctor and Matilda divorced years ago."

"Then why did Dr. Burk need to come back to Irving-Keene?" Mal wanted to know.

"Most likely, to start the Love-Bot revolution," Nir said. "Or because he was still pining for Matilda; I've heard rumors that his obsession with her bordered on… well, obsessive."

"And the poor sucker got himself killed."

"By Love-Bots," Nir agreed. "A rather poetic ending for a man of his stature, don't you think?"

She grinned at him, and he could see the oldness in her eyes again.

But it was gone as quickly as it had come, and she was just a little girl sitting at the table, smiling at him. She raised her hands, and the band stopped playing; everyone stopped dancing. She grinned at her younger brother Miguel, who looked older than she ever would, and said, "_Mazel tov_ to our esteemed guests! _Barukh atah Adonai, Elohainu, melekh ha'olam, she'asah nisim la'avoteinu bayamim haheim baziman hazeh!_"

Everyone in The Fox and Cricket began to clap, and someone grabbed Nir from her seat and whisked her into the middle of the swirling dance crowd. Somehow they all joined hands and began to dance in a huge circle around The Fox and Cricket.

"Come now, Captain Reynolds," he heard Inara's voice say mockingly, and two pale hands reached out of the crowd to grab his. "You know what they say…"

Mal did indeed. "When in Rome…"

And together they danced and sang: "It's the festival of lights, for eight whole days and eight whole nights!"

And so it was.

And it was very, _very_ good. But he hadn't expected anything less anyway.

_Fin._


End file.
